Directly after performing this remarkable dare-devil deed “Wild Bill”
again concluded to re-enter Price’s lines, although to return into the
camp where he must now be familiarly known, was like inviting death.
Some men are never so happy as when daring fate, and to approach near
the dreadful summoner often becomes a fascinating adventure. It was so
with Bill, for the greater the risks to be encountered, the greater
his enjoyment. He loved danger, not as the soldier who would gather
fame from the mouths of roaring cannons, but as one who extracts
some pleasant intoxicant from the result. For the fourth time Bill
disguised himself and again made a detour so as to re-enter General
Price’s lines from the South. He met the fleeing army not many miles
from Little Rock, and, riding a mule, with the make-up of an Arkansas
farmer, he offered himself as a recruit. It was but a short time before
he was discovered, and upon being reported he was arrested, and on the
following day tried by court-martial. The trial lasted less than an
hour, as he was so well known in connection with the escapades already
narrated, and upon conviction he was sentenced to be shot on the
succeeding day.
Fortune always favors the desperately brave, and we now have to record
another extraordinary visitation of good luck to Bill. Price’s army
had been fleeing more than a week before the victorious Curtis, whose
troops outnumbered those of Price two to one. The pursuit had been
continued until both armies were very much fatigued, and Price’s was so
nearly exhausted that he was compelled to go into camp on a small creek
twenty-five miles south of Little Rock. Wild Bill’s arms and legs were
pinioned with thongs and he was confined in a one-room log-house with a
single guard to prevent his escape. The house had but one door and one
window, the latter being nearly two feet square and closed by a door
made of clap-boards. Being bound hand and foot there was no avenue of
escape, apparently, and Bill was forced to take a melancholy view of
his situation. Night coming on, and the guard being nearly worn out,
dozed off from time to time, feeling that his prisoner was perfectly
secure. While meditating upon the execution announced to take place on
the morrow, in which he was to be the chief character his eyes caught
sight of the handle of an old case-knife which was sticking in an auger
hole in one of the house logs. Changing his seat without arousing any
suspicion from the guard, Bill managed to secure the rusty knife, and
after long effort succeeded in cutting the cords which bound his wrists
together. The dozing guard permitted him also to cut the cords on his
feet, and the moment he was free Bill rushed on the guard like a tiger
springing upon its prey and seizing him by the throat ripped open
his abdomen in an instant. The guard fell dead from the knife thrusts
without being able to give any alarm, and, seizing the musket and
taking the guard’s coat, which he hastily put on, Bill fled out into
the darkness and made good his escape.
Bill traveled nearly two days before reaching the Union lines, and upon
his return he appeared before General Curtis, to whom he related his
wonderful escape from death, and declined to act any longer as a spy in
Price’s army, as his return again would, undoubtedly, have resulted in
his death.