SHOOTING FOR A PRIZE.
While Mr. Cody was an Indian trader at Salt Creek Valley in Kansas,
Billy laid the foundation for his knowledge of the red-skin character,
and which served him so well in after years and won him a name as scout
and hunter that no one else has ever surpassed.
For days at a time Billy would be in the Indian villages, and often he
would go with the warriors on their buffalo and game hunts, and now and
then would join a friendly band in a war trail against hostiles.
Another favorite resort of Billy's was Fort Leavenworth, where his
handsome face, fearlessness and manly nature made him a great favorite
with both officers and men.
On one occasion while at the fort a large Government herd of horses,
lately brought up from Texas, where they had been captured wild on the
prairies, stampeded, and could not be retaken.
Once or twice Billy had come into the fort with a pony of the fugitive
herd which he had captured, and the quartermaster said to him:
"Billy, if that herd remains much longer free, they will be harder to
take than real wild horses, so go to work and I'll give you a reward of
ten dollars for every one you bring in, for the Government authorizes me
to make that offer."
This was just to Billy's taste, and he went at once home and spent a
couple of days preparing for the work before him, and from which his
mother and sisters tried to dissuade him; but the boy saw in it a
bonanza and would not give it up.
His own pony, Rascal, he knew, was not fast enough for the work ahead,
so he determined to get a better mount, and rode over to the fort to see
a sergeant who had an animal not equaled for speed on the plains.
Rascal, some sixty dollars, a rifle, and some well-tanned skins were
offered for the sergeant's horse and refused, and in despair Billy knew
not what to do, for he had gotten to the end of his personal fortune.
"Sergeant," he suddenly cried, as a bright idea seized him.
"Well, Billy?"
"They say you are the crack shot in the fort."
"I am too, Billy."
"Well, I'll tell you what I'll do to win your horse, Little Grey. I'll
put up all I have offered you against your animal and shoot for them."
"Why, Billy, I don't want to win your pony and money."
"And I don't want you to; but I'll shoot with you for your horse against
mine and all else I have offered."
The sergeant was a grasping man, and confident of his powers, at last
assented, and the match was to take place at once.
But the officers learning of it were determined Billy should have fair
play, and a day was set a week off, and the boy was told to practice
regularly with both pistol and rifle, for the terms were ten off-hand
shots with the latter at fifty and one hundred yards, and six shots
standing with the revolver at fifteen paces and six from horseback, and
riding at full speed by the target.
Billy at once set to work to practice, though he had confidence in his
unerring aim, and upon the day of trial came to the fort with a smiling
face.
Nearly everybody in the fort went out to see the match, and the sergeant
was called first to toe the mark.
He raised his rifle and his five shots at fifty yards were quickly
fired.
Billy gave a low whistle, but toed the scratch promptly, and his five
shots were truer than the sergeant's, and a wild cheer broke from one
and all.
At one hundred yards the sergeant's shooting was better than the boy's;
and so it was with the pistol shooting, for when standing the sergeant's
shots were best, and in riding full speed by the target, Billy's were
the truest, and it was called a tie.
"How shall we shoot it off, Billy?" asked the sergeant, who seemed
somewhat nervous.
Billy made no reply, but went to his haversack and took from it an
apple, and going up to his pony placed him in position, the rein over
the horn of the saddle.
The apple he then put on the head of the pony, directly between his
ears, and stepping back while all present closely watched him, he threw
forward his pistol and fired.
The apple flew into fragments and a wild burst of applause came from all
sides, while Billy said quietly:
"I've got another apple, sergeant, for you to try the same on Little
Grey."
"I'll not run the risk, Billy, of killing him, so give in; but I'll win
him back from you sometime," said the sergeant.
"Any time, sergeant, I'm willing to shoot," replied the boy, and with a
happy heart he mounted his prize and set off for home.