efore the civil war. He made his mark, and
was elected a constable in that dangerous country before he was twenty
years of age. He was then a tall, "gangling" youth, six feet one in
height, with yellow hair and blue eyes. He later developed into as
splendid looking a man as ever trod on leather, muscular and agile as he
was powerful and enduring. His features were clean-cut and expressive,
his carriage erect and dignified, and no one ever looked less the
conventional part of the bad man assigned in popular imagination. He was
not a quarrelsome man, although a dangerous one, and his voice was low
and even, showing a nervous system like that of Daniel Boone--"not
agitated." It might have been supposed that he would be a natural master
of weapons, and such was the case. The use of rifle and revolver was
born in him, and perhaps no man of the frontier ever surpassed him in
quick and accurate use of the heavy six-shooter. The religion of the
frontier was not to miss, and rarely ever did he shoot except he knew
that he would not miss. The tale of his killings in single combat is the
longest authentically assigned to any man in American history.

After many experiences with the pro-slavery folk from the border, Bill,
or "Shanghai Bill," as he was then known--a nickname which clung for
years--went stage driving for the Overland, and incidentally did some
effective Indian fighting for his employers, finally, in the year 1861,
settling down as station agent for the Overland at Rock Creek station,
about fifty miles west of Topeka. He was really there as guard for the
horse band, for all that region was full of horse thieves and
cutthroats, and robberies and killings were common enough. It was here
that there occurred his greatest fight, the greatest fight of one man
against odds at close range that is mentioned in any history of any part
of the world. There was never a battle like it known, nor is the West
apt again to produce one matching it.

The borderland of Kansas was at that time, as may be remembered, ground
debated by the anti-slavery and pro-slavery factions, who still waged
bitter war against one another, killing, burning, and pillaging without
mercy. The civil war was then raging, and Confederates from Missouri
were frequent visitors in eastern Kansas under one pretext or another,
of which horse lifting was the one most common, it being held legitimate
to prey upon the enemy as opportunity offered. Two border outlaws by