THE BOY SOLDIER.
After a very short stay at home Buffalo Billy began to show signs of
uneasiness, for he was too near Leavenworth, then an important military
post, not to get the soldier's fever for battles and marches.
He soon discovered that a company of cavalry was being raised to do
service in Missouri, and he at once enlisted and went as a guard to a
Government train bound to Springfield, Missouri, and after that he was
made a dispatch runner to the different forts, and met with many
thrilling adventures while in that capacity.
From this duty Buffalo Billy was sent as guide and scout to the Ninth
Kansas Regiment which was ordered into the Kiowa and Comanche country,
and it did good service there, and the young soldier added new laurels
to his name.
The second year of the war Billy became one of the famous "Red Legged
Scouts," formed of the most noted rangers of Kansas.
While a member of this daring band he was sent to guide a train to
Denver, but upon arriving there, learning of the severe illness of his
mother, he at once set off for home, going the entire distance alone and
making wonderful time through a country infested with dangers.
To his joy, he found his mother still living, yet failing rapidly, and
soon after his arrival she breathed her last and Buffalo Billy had lost
his best, truest friend, and the sad event cast a gloom over the life of
the young soldier.
As one of his sisters had married some time before, her husband took
charge of the farm, while Billy returned to the army and was sent into
Mississippi and Tennessee with his command.
But Billy did not relish military duty, for he had become too well
accustomed to the free life of the plains, and, resigning his position
as scout, started upon his return to the prairies.
But while on the way he came in sight of a pleasant farm-house, from
which came a cry of help in the voice of a woman.
Billy saw five horses hitched to a fence on the other side of the house;
but this array of numbers did not deter him when a woman called for aid,
and dismounting quickly he bounded upon the piazza, and was just running
into the door when a man came out into the hall and fired at him, but
fortunately missed him.
Bill instantly returned the fire, and his quick, unerring aim sent a
bullet into the man's brain.
At the shots a wilder cry came from within for help and two men dashed
out into the hall, and, seeing Billy, three pistols flashed together.
But Billy was unhurt, and one of his foes fell dead, while springing
upon the other he gave him a stunning blow with his revolver that put
him out of the fight, and then bounded into the room to discover an
elderly lady and a lovely young girl threatened by two huge ruffians,
who were holding their pistols to their heads to try and force from them
the hiding-place of their money and valuables.
Seeing Billy, they both turned upon him, and a fierce fight ensued,
which quickly ended in the killing of both ruffians by the brave young
soldier, who seemed to bear a charmed life, for he was unhurt, though he
had slain four men in a desperate combat and wounded a fifth.
Just then into the room dashed three men, and their weapons were leveled
at Buffalo Billy, and right then and there his days would have ended had
it not been for the courage and presence of mind of the lovely young
girl, who threw herself forward upon his breast, to the youth's great
surprise, and cried out:
"Father! Brothers! don't fire, for this man is our friend."
The old man and his sons quickly lowered their rifles, while the former
said:
"A friend in blue uniform, while we wear the gray?'
"I am a Union soldier, sir, I admit, and I was going by your home, heard
a cry for help, and found your wife and daughter, as I suppose them to
be, at the mercy of five ruffians, and I was fortunate enough to serve
them.
"But I will not be made prisoner, gentlemen."
Billy's hands were on his revolvers and he looked squarely in the faces
of those in his front, and they could see that he was a man who meant
what he said.
"My dear sir, I am a Confederate, I admit, and this is my home; but I am
not the one to do a mean action toward a Union soldier, and especially
one who has just served me so well in killing these men, whom I
recognize as jay-hawkers, who prey on either side, and own no allegiance
to North or South.
"Here is my hand, sir, and I will protect you while in our lines."
Billy grasped the hand of the farmer, and then those of his sons, and
all thanked him warmly for the service he had done them.
But Billy was surprised to find he was within the Confederate lines, and
found by inquiring that he had taken the wrong road a few miles back.
The farmer was the captain of a neighborhood military company, and it
was his custom to come home with his sons whenever he had opportunity,
and arriving just as the fight ended he saw a man in gray uniform lying
dead in the hall, and beholding Billy in the blue, had an idea that the
Northern soldiers were on a raid, had been met by some of his men, and
he certainly would have killed the young scout but for the timely act of
his lovely daughter, Louise.
And it was this very circumstance, the meeting with Louise Frederici,
the Missouri farmer's daughter, that caused Buffalo Billy to decide to
remain in the army, and not to return to the plains, for when stationed
in or near St. Louis, he could often see the pretty dark-eyed girl who
had stolen his heart away.
Before the war ended Buffalo Billy returned to Kansas, but he carried
with him the heart of Louise Frederici, and the promise that she would
one day be his wife.
After a short visit to his sisters he again became a stage-driver, and
it was by making a desperate drive down a mountain side to escape a band
of road-agents that he won the well-deserved title of the Prince of the
Reins.