 Frontier Fighters. Frontier Fighters. Throbbing pages torn from the history romance and adventure of those brave men and women who brought law and order to the West. A picturesque character whose exploits thundered across the pages of history was James Butler Hickok, familiarly known as Wild Bill. But this son of law-abiding God-fearing William Alonzo and Polly Hickok was anything but wild. He was named as the best shot in the West as an Indian fighter, town marshal and defender of weak and helpless women. The winning of his nickname almost cost him his life. While Hickok was visiting Mr. and Mrs. Waltman at Rock Springs, Nebraska, the infamous mechanist gang of horse thieves and outlaws decided to wreak their vengeance on Bill Hickok because on several occasions he had thwarted their plans. On July 12th, 1861, when John Waltman was away, without warning the mechanist gang burst in the door to the cabin. We're gonna get you, Bill. We've got your corner this time. Or look, Hickok. Don't shoot him. You're turned against him. He's only got one pistol. One as good as a hundred against ten cowards, and when they're leaders, David Mechanus, it's a cinch for me to win. John, do you think Bill will live? The only six pistol shots in a boy's knife, he whipped the whole murderous mechanist gang. Six shots in a boy's knife. He's just full of wounds. The Lord have mercy on him. For all his wonderful courage, he's just a boy. One as good as a hundred against ten cowards, and when they're leaders, David Mechanus. No, no, no. Don't take it easy. Don't face about so wide with your arms. You ain't got a knife in your hand. I... I think I'm done for. Now you just lie still a while, or you'll start those wounds to bleeding again. I... did I? Are they done for? That gang? Yes, Bill. My wife said she just laid into them. Your arms threshing around just like you was wild. I was so mad when the pistol was emptied. I didn't have nothing but a knife in my belt. I guess I must have gone off a little. Wild's the word for it. Poor Bill. After a man just passed 24 years old, single-handed wipes out the worst gang of desperate who's in the West, he ain't poor Bill. He's Wild Bill. Wild Bill Hickock. And so James Butler Hickock earned the name which almost cost him his life. His encounters fighting on the side of law were many. Early in 1862, he joined the Union Army and served with honors as sharpshooter, spy, and scout. The Civil War to an end, he became Chief Scout for General Curtis. In 1869, he came to Hayes City in Kansas. On September 8th, he was elected town marshal. He had hardly taken the oath of office when Jack Straughan, a notorious desperado, began to terrorize the citizens. Said Jim Naster to the new marshal. Bill, I tell you this, Straughan is 14 different kinds of a devil. He said he was going to clean out Hayes City in a new marshal, too. That's so? Well, you don't seem to get excited, do you, Jim? Well, aren't you going to do nothing? Sure, but let the stranger get his feet warmed first. Just calm and courtesy. When I left him, he was over the drum saloon, showing the crowd the notches on his gun. Said at the drop of the hat, he could shoot anybody or anything straight from the hip. Where did you say this notorious outlaw hangs out? A drum saloon, Bill. Hand me that brace of pistols, Jim. As town marshal, I reckon it's my duty to see that strangers coming into town know that law and orders come to Hayes City to stay. Well, I guess it might as well get off my boy-knife and start carving that other notch of my gun. The minute I lay eyes on Mr. Marshall Hickock, he's a dead man. That's him, Bill. That's him. He discovered me yet, which makes it better for all of us. You walk down towards the bar, Jim, and to push the chairs aside a little to make a path for me, because I'm going to come on the run for that bad man. All right, Bill. When you get to the bar, tell him Hickock's waiting for him by the swinging door. Yeah. I'm sorry to interrupt your game, but you're blocking my way to the bar. Just move closer to your tables. Well, since when are you so finicky, Jim, about stepping on my feet? Turnin' over a new leaf. Decided to be a gentleman. Evening, bartender. What'll it be, Jim? Oh, escape. Oh. Didn't I hear you say you decided to be a gentleman, mister? That's right, stranger. You are your cat. I'm the only one in Hayes City. There's a third gentleman in Hayes City, and he's over there by the swinging door. Oh, is it so? Well, looks like your marshal's got more nerve than I thought. Well, boys, get your money ready for the flowers you'll be sending to Wild Bill. Stranger, I think it might be a good idea for you to leave town. Oh, is it so? Well, how much do you weigh, sonny? I weigh only 165 pounds, and I'm in a good humor, but my fighting size is a fraction more than a ton. Oh, bragging, long-haired white livers sent to people. Oh! Well, you dropped him, Bill, and with one bullet. Sorry, gentlemen, but you saved money on me this time. I hope somebody saw him pull a gun on me first. Sure, Bill, I thought... But you could beat him by a split here. All right, gents. Well, that's over. We'll really start enforcing the law. Playing cards for money is out. That's gambling, and gambling in Hayes City is no good anymore. Hey, Bill, you're joking. Hey, what are you gonna do for your game? Play solids here? I'm cutting out cards, too. For money and saloons in your homes. I'm here to clean up this town. Now, there's a certain lady and her friends coming to Hayes City, and by my invitation, too. The lady's name is Lake. If she likes the way I've cleaned up this town, she might change it to Hickok. What do you think of that? I suppose three chairs for the view of Mrs. Wild Bill Hickok. Wait, the lady won't be known as Mrs. Wild Bill Hickok. If she has me, I'm not Wild. I love peace, order, and decency. I never killed a man that didn't need killing, and if he needed it, he was outside the law. Remember that. How about three chairs for the future Mrs. Plain Bill Hickok? I'm not known whether it'll be yes or no. Save the chairs. But if you will, the drinks are on me. I did not thought I would be approached in the subject of marriage with Hickok. I ain't much on words, ma'am. I've never made a business of courting. Courting, Mr. Hickok, is not a business. It is an art, and one doesn't do it with pictures. Oh, maybe that's what you got against me. My reputation is a crack shot, or maybe it's that mechanical affair. You're what we would say naive. Here, I find a young blonde giant. A six-feet-three, are you? A six-one, ma'am. A six-foot-one blonde giant. In love with a woman eleven years his senior. A woman who has spent most of her life in a circus as an equestrian. I don't care what you are. You're good and fine and sweet. You're like a breath of sweet warm spring wind fillin' the valleys. Do you see things like that often? Almost never. It's looking at you being near here that brought it out. Gosh, ma'am. You can't be leading lady in a circus all your life. I'm going on to Abilene after I make a city a clean town. If you say the word, I'll settle down in Abilene. That is, after I've made it a place I'd want a lady like you to live in. In your heart you are a fine man, Billy Hickok. And although you have not proposed, perhaps some time we can speak seriously of marriage. But let us wait. You have your way to go on, I mine. What we will meet again. I'll go on living only in the hope that we will meet again, ma'am. Ma'am. Yes, Mr. Billy Hickok. What, were you trembling? Well, I'm powerful agitated, Miss Agnes. I want to take in my arms and kiss you, but I'm afraid you'd scream. No, I wouldn't scream. What would you do, ma'am? Let you? While Bill Hickok, true to his word, did go to Abilene and brought law and order and decency to a rough, tumble, wide-open border town. And true to his word, Bill never forgot Agnes Lake. His word was passed. The word reached him that she was in Cheyenne. He turned his officer's badge into the council and booked passage on the first stage out for Wyoming. But not before a crowd of his admirers carried him on their shoulders from his room to the bar in the tavern and stood him on it. Come on, please, please! Oh, I had never made a speech in my life. Never had to. It wasn't anything to talk about for more than 30 seconds. But most of my life I've been dealing with outlaws, desperators, and horse thieves. And for them, you don't need no fancy words. Just quick shooting. Say, fellas, is this here a speech I make? If you ain't careful, it'll probably be one, Bill. Well, if that's the case, I'll just shut up. But before I do, you all know what I'm going to Cheyenne for. It's to tell Miss Lake again I love her. I reckon she'll have me this time. The Lord knows why, but women is funny things and wonderful things. I don't know what the years will bring, but I hope the day comes when I can lay aside my shooting irons. But as long as there's one outlaw stopping the West from being called safe for the women and children who are bound to come here in that far or near tomorrow, I'm ready to pick up my Marshall's badge again and go anywhere to bring law and order to this last frontier. And thus we leave one of the most colorful characters in the entire history of the West. The wild Bill Hickok that many historians present in those uncertain days at Deadwood City prior to his assassination is not part of our story. We would like to remember him as a loyal, straight talking, straight shooting, guardian of law, order and decency, a valuable citizen of those early history making days, and a real frontier fighter.