when Will received a wound.

And now once more was the versatile plainsman called upon to enact a new
role. Returning from a long scout in the fall of 1872, he found that his
friends had made him a candidate for the Nebraska legislature from the
twenty-sixth district. He had never thought seriously of politics,
and had a well-defined doubt of his fitness as a law-maker. He made
no campaign, but was elected by a flattering majority. He was now
privileged to prefix the title "Honorable" to his name, and later this
was supplanted by "Colonel"--a title won in the Nebraska National Guard,
and which he claims is much better suited to his attainments.

Will, unlike his father, had no taste for politics or for political
honors. I recall one answer--so characteristic of the man--to some
friends who were urging him to enter the political arena. "No," said he,
"politics are by far too deep for me. I think I can hold my own in any
fair and no foul fight; but politics seem to me all foul and no fair.
I thank you, my friends, but I must decline to set out on this trail,
which I know has more cactus burs to the square inch than any I ever
followed on the plains."

Meantime Ned Buntline had been nurturing an ambitious project. He had
been much impressed by the fine appearance made by Will in the New York
theater, and was confident that a fortune awaited the scout if he would
consent to enter the theatrical profession. He conceived the idea of
writing a drama entitled "The Scout of the Plains," in which Will was
to assume the title role and shine as a star of the first magnitude. The
bait he dangled was that the play should be made up entirely of frontier
scenes, which would not only entertain the public, but instruct it.

The bait was nibbled at, and finally swallowed, but there was a proviso
that Wild Bill and Texas Jack must first be won over to act as "pards"
in the enterprise. He telegraphed his two friends that he needed their
aid in an important business matter, and went to Chicago to meet them.
He was well assured that if he had given them an inkling of the nature
of the "business matter," neither would put in an appearance; but he
relied on Ned Buntline's persuasive powers, which were well developed.

There had never been a time when Wild Bill and Texas Jack declined
to follow Will's lead, and on a certain morning the trio presented
themselves at the Palmer House in Chicago for an interview with Colonel
Judson.

The aut