the name of the McCandlas boys led a gang of hard men in enterprises of
this nature, and these intended to run off the stage company's horses
when they found they could not seduce Bill to join their number. He told
them to come and take the horses if they could; and on the afternoon of
December 16, 1861, ten of them, led by the McCandlas brothers, rode up
to his dugout to do so. Bill was alone, his stableman being away
hunting. He retreated to the dark interior of his dugout and got ready
his weapons, a rifle, two six-shooters, and a knife.

The assailants proceeded to batter in the door with a log, and as it
fell in, Jim McCandlas, who must have been a brave man to undertake so
foolhardy a thing against a man already known as a killer, sprang in at
the opening. He, of course, was killed at once. This exhausted the
rifle, and Bill picked up the six-shooters from the table and in three
quick shots killed three more of the gang as they rushed in at the door.
Four men were dead in less than that many seconds; but there were still
six others left, all inside the dugout now, and all firing at him at a
range of three feet. It was almost a miracle that, under such
surroundings, the man was not killed. Bill now was crowded too much
to use his firearms, and took to the bowie, thrusting at one man and
another as best he might. It is known among knife-fighters that a man
will stand up under a lot of flesh-cutting and blood-letting until the
blade strikes a bone. Then he seems to drop quickly if it be a deep and
severe thrust. In this chance medley, the knife wounds inflicted on each
other by Bill and his swarming foes did not at first drop their men; so
that it must have been several minutes that all seven of them were mixed
in a mass of shooting, thrusting, panting, and gasping humanity. Then
Jack McCandlas swung his rifle barrel and struck Bill over the head,
springing upon him with his knife as well. Bill got his hand on a
six-shooter and killed him just as he would have struck. After that no
one knows what happened, not even Bill himself, who got his name then
and there. "I just got sort of wild," he said, describing it. "I thought
my heart was on fire. I went out to the pump then to get a drink, and I
was all cut and shot to pieces."

[Illustration: From a painting by John W. Norton
WILD BILL HICKOK'S DESPERATE FIGHT IN THE DUGOUT--ONE MAN AGAINST TEN]

They called him Wild Bill after that, and he had earned the name. Ther