Proud Of His Record

OME days ago L iiuiet looking mai with a cold blui eye and a stubb; mustache walked ui to the clerk of thi Hotel Metropole il New York and said "I've been touohed.' The clerk was in credulous. "Bat' Masterson touched' Think of it. A mai with twenty-elght notches on his gut "touched" by a comraon sneak thief' a man who in past years would hav awakened at the buzzing of a nighi beetle in the bushes about his camp fin robbed by a vulgar pickpocket. Tet t was true. Masterson had lost his diai .ond stud, his watch, and several hundred dollars in money. H that thief will read this story care fully he will probably cast aside thi dross of worldly pleasures for a tlmí and pray with a spirit of thankfulnesa "Bat" did not wake up. Had he don so the thief would have -'crossed th diviJe'" in a jiffy. The hlstory of Masterson is full of broils and blood. Il was just after the civil war, whet Masterson was about fifteen years old. that he made up his mlnd to become a' buffalo hunter. Atthac time the greal railro&ds across the plains were being built and "Buffalo Bill" was earnir.g hia reputation as a hunter. One winter morning young Mastersot walked into the dining room where hia mother and father were seated and announced his intention of becoming a hunter. In vain his father used his suasive powers to persuade Bat to re consider his determinaron. Failing in this, the oíd man grasped his adventur ous heir by the back of the neck, led hlm out into the woodshed and argued with him earnestly with a trunk strap. Thia did not have 'the desired effect. A month or so later young Manterson rode into Fort Dodge on his father's best horse. He was armed with a Winchester rifle and a breech-loading revolver, the latter of which he carries to this day. He feil in with some buffalo hunters in that town, and for the next six months he devoted his time to killing buffaloes. He soon became known as one of the best hunters on the plains, and he attained sueh a reputation that the best of the old leather stockings who roained the plains were always ready to go on a hunt with this beardless boy with the cold, blue eyes and quiet smile, who could hoid his own in riding-, shooting and fighting with the most sklllful, the hardiest and the most desperate men on the plains. It was this period of his life that Masterson dlstinguished himself as the nero of an Indian flght that is still remembered throughout the western territory. It was just previous to this Indian flght, however, that Masterson killed his flrst man. On the night of June 12, 1874, young Masterson and his two partners rode into the small settlement of Adobe Walls, a trading post on the Canadian river. The town was very small, consisting of only two stores, two saloons and a blaeksmith shop. After eating supper at the camp, which was pitched by the river side, a poker game was proposed with the saloon keepers, and Bat, who even at that age wan passionately fond of gambling, took a hand. Luck was with him. For an hour or more he won steadily. Then one of the players, whom Bat had met for the first time, lost his temper, and in the course of an argument called young Masterson a liar. At the acwue urne ne leaped to his feet and pulled his gun. It was the last act of hls Ufe. Before he could draw a bead Masterson had drawn hls revolver and had shot the man dead with a bullet throught the right eye. In less than half an hour the body was burled and the poker game went on. It lasted far into the night. About two o'clock in the morning the buffalo hunters ivrapped themselves in their blankets and feil asleep. A dozen or more of them, Including Masterson, slept in the room where the poker game had taken ,)lace. This was a Iow adobe building, :onsisting of one room. Across thé ength of it ran a big cottonwood Jolst, Uretching from front to rear. An hour ater the buffalo hunters were asleep Vbout four o'cloek, from some unknown ;ause, thls cottonwood beam broke with v great nolse, and the sleepers, thinkng that the building was about to tum)le, rushed out into the open air. This ncident saved thelr llves. ihey all took a drink and talked the natter over, and just as they had etled themselves again In their blankets oud whoops were heard and into the .own rushed a band of over five hunIred Indlans. The fcuffalo hunters tnew them well, for they had fought hem many times before. They wtrP ompoBed of Cheyennes, Arrapahoes .omanches, and Kiowas as bloodthirsy a combination as one would care to t% They were painted black and red and yellow, and weffe the star flght ers of their respective tribes. In an instant the hunters jumped t their feet, and tiistead d belng the sui prisers the IniJians were the surprised They were met with a snower of leai that caused severa] of thera to bite th dust. They charged again and again but could never reach the walls of tha adobe saloon where Masterson and th hunters were intrenched. For fifteei days the Indians kept up the battle They were under the lead of a giganti negro, a deserter of tne United State army. He had been a bugler, and ii every charge against the wall the blar of his brass trumpet could be hèard The Indians followed this negro in al their charges. On the thirteenth day matters begai to look very serious. Provisions wen getting short and wells were dug insidi the building to get a supply of water As time passed the Indians, headed b] the big negro, seemed to fight hard? and with more confidence. In a confe; ence held by the hunters it was agre? : that the only way the Indians could 'h driven off was to kill the negro dfs perado. All eftorts in tnat directioi failed. The negro was too cunning t show himself or to court the bullet; that he knew awaited him. At las1 the youthful Masterson made up hi; mind that he would take a hand ai negro killing. "Boys," said he, "1 am g-oing to nail that man; just see If I don't. If I don't nail him he'll nail me, and I'm going to take a chance on it." At dawn the next day the Indians eharged again. As usual they were repulsed. Just as they were riding i to the shelter of the cottonwood g] Masterson rushed frora the front doo and began to yell. The Indians st. ■ at once and wheeled, with the n. in the van. In an instant they ma rush at him, thinking, perhaps, thu I he meant to surrender. When they got close enough, however, the old Colt's revolver barked, and the negro rolled off his horse shot through the head. Then "Bat" turned tail and ran.back te the shelter of the adobe house for deai lite. The death of the negro seemed to dlshearten the Indians, and they left the village in peace. A week later the government troops drove them into the agency, with a loss of seventy-flve killed, over half of whom had met thelr fate at Adobe Walls. Three of the buffalo huntersvere killed, the two Sadler boys and Billy Tyler. A month after the fight General Nelson A. Miles sent for the Intrepid Masterson and made him second in command of a body of eighteen government scouts. Shortly afterward a report carne to General Miles that the Indians had attacked a wagon train on the line of the Kansas Pacific railroad, and had murdered all in the train except four sisters named Germaine. These unfortunate children, who were broug-ht up in luxury in the east, were made captlves Their ages were eighteen, sixteen, five and tbree years respectively. Masterson led the party that went out to escue them. One day while hunting for antelope, with which to supply the camp, "Bat" saw an Indian slipping along the river bed, a half a mile away. ïe followed, and found the two younger Germaine sisters sleeping in a buffalo kin in a ravine, guarded by three Inians. The main body of Indians were absent on a marauding expeclition. Without hesitation Masterson rode righf up and demanded the children. The lndians showed fight, but "Bat's" revolver cracked with rapidity, and that night he rode into camp with the two younger Germaine sisters, the heads of three lndians and an antelope. The other two sisters were surrendered by the lndians at the Cheyenne agency during the following spring, and Masterson was delegated to conduct the Indian prisoners to the government prison In the Dry Tortugas. On the way oíd Greybeard, a Cheyenne chief, made an ittempt to escape. He was shnt thm„„i. :he head by Masterson. One of Masterson's most notable achievements occurred one night early in the spring of 1871. A party of six Texas cowboys rode into Dodge City and boldly announced that they were tvolves, and that it was their especial iight for howling. Then they proceeded to howl. They mounted thelr broncos ïnd ranted up and down the streets shootlng and yelling. They drank bad' Whisky and showed utter disregard for ne íaw. Tilia became monotonous after l while and they grew tired of it. Then .hey rode up in front of a dance house iismounted and prepared to hold wild' vassail. Marshal Masterson, the broth:r of "Bat," who was himself a pretty -air shooter, and had clipped three or .our notches on his gun stock, reluested the desperados to leave their irms outslde before entering the dance 'tu tu This was iri Etrict accordance vlth the law. They did not say a word. fhey killed him on the spot An hour later "Bat" heard of it He .-alked quietly down to the dance hall vent inside and had the men pointed' )ut to him. It was one against six ine shootlng -began !n short order Vhen it was finished, the six cowboys veré dead, and from that minute the lulet "Bat" Masterson was the cowoys' bitterest enemy. Masterson is very happlly married nd has an interesting famlly, hls wife eing a cultivated lady.