The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wild Bill's Last Trail, by Ned Buntline

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Title: Wild Bill's Last Trail

Author: Ned Buntline

Release Date: April 16, 2007 [EBook #21113]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD BILL'S LAST TRAIL ***

Produced by Richard Halsey

Wild Bill's Last Trail.

By NED BUNTLINE,
Author of "Harry Bluff, The Reefer," "Navigator Ned," etc.

CHAPTER I.
THE AVENGER.

"Bill! _Wild Bill!_ Is this you, or your ghost? What, in great
Creation's name, are you doing here?"

"Gettin' toward sunset, old pard--gettin' toward sunset, before I pass
in my checks!"

The first speaker was an old scout and plainsman, Sam Chichester by
name, and he spoke to a passenger who had just left the west-ward-bound
express train at Laramie, on the U.P.R.R.

That passenger was none other than J. B. Hickok, or "Wild Bill," one of
the most noted shots, and certainly the most desperate man of his age
and day west of the Mississippi River.

"What do you mean, Bill, when you talk of passing in your checks? You're
in the very prime of life, man, and---"

"Hush! Talk low! There are listening ears everywhere, Sam! I don't know
why, but there is a chill at my heart, and I know my time has about run
out. I've been on East with Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack, trying to show
people what our plains life is. But I wasn't at home there. There were
crowds on crowds that came to see us, and I couldn't stir on the streets
of their big cities without having an army at my heels, and I got sick
of it. But that wasn't all. There was a woman that fell in love with me,
and made up her mind to marry me. I told her that I was no sort of a man
to tie to--that I was likely to be wiped out any day 'twixt sunrise and
sunset, for I had more enemies than a candidate for President; but she
wouldn't listen to sense, and so--_we buckled!_ Thank Heaven, I've
coaxed her to stay East with friends while I've come out here; for, Sam,
she'll be a widow inside of six weeks!"

"Bill, you've been hitting benzine heavy of late haven't you?

"No; I never drank lighter in my life than I have for a year past. But
there's a shadow cold a