When Cook was elected marshal of Denver for the first time, in 1866, he printed a notice, saying that he would agree to find stolen stock when notified twenty-four hours after its disappearance, and that if he did not find it, he would pay for it himself, after such notification. One day in December, 1867, a well-known ranchman named McIntyre came to the city and put up at McNassar’s corral, which then stood on the present site of the American House. The next morning the horses had disappeared, and Mr. McIntyre was quite in despair. The animals were very fine ones, and the loss would have been very severe upon him. He had little hope of recovering them, as up to that time the thief who had been able to once get away with stock had generally made good his escape.
However, Cook undertook to find the stock, telling Mr. McIntyre to be of good cheer, as the chances were that he would yet secure his property for him. In looking about, he discovered that Britt and Hilligoss, whom he had already spotted, had disappeared. He at once came to the conclusion that they were the guilty parties. This “pointer” once obtained, he soon added one clue to another, until he was quite thoroughly convinced that his men had gone north. Selecting as an assistant a deputy marshal named Rhodes, he started in pursuit on horseback.
The weather was freezing cold, but the officers traveled forward, notwithstanding this disagreeable circumstance, stopping only to make inquiries for the fugitives and to get their meals. The trail was struck at the Platte bridge and followed by the officers to Boulder, where it was lost.
Two days and nights were spent in the effort of the officers to run their game down, but apparently to no avail. On the third day Gen. Cook returned to Denver, having left Rhodes in Boulder. He had scarcely arrived, and had had no time for rest or recreation, when he received news from Capt. J. W. Barron, of Bijou Basin, a member of the detective association, telling him that two men answering the description which he had sent out of Britt and Hilligoss had passed there acting very strangely. Barron’s message stated that the men had applied for something to eat. They had stated that they were traveling to Denver, but after getting a short distance from Bijou had turned, circumventing the settlements and going towards Kansas.
“They are my men,” said Cook, “and I’ll go for them forthwith.”
He had not yet rested since his long ride to the north, but he was off on the next stage, which soon left for the East.
In those days there was no Kansas Pacific railroad to the East, and all the travel was done on coaches—not a very pleasant mode of traveling in cold weather, or when there were Indians about. This was a time when the plains abounded in Indians, and when it was necessary to keep a guard on the outside of the coach to protect passengers from the Sioux and Cheyennes and Arapahoes. It was also very cold weather, and frost-bitten feet and hands and ears were quite the fashion with the travelers of the time. But Mr. Cook started out undaunted. Stopping at Bijou Basin and other points only long enough to get information of the progress of the horse thieves, he pushed on with speed. At Cheyenne Wells he received information which made it quite certain to him that he was on the right track, and he exchanged his ordinary clothing for a stage driver’s outfit, so as to avoid detection. After crossing the Kansas line he heard of the fellows more frequently, and while sitting with the driver he espied two men just west of Pond creek, near Fort Wallace, whom he believed to be the men he sought. They had hired out as laborers, and were carrying picks and shovels, with which to begin operations. They were near the road, and as Cook drove closer to them, he established their identity beyond a doubt, so that he instructed the driver to stop after passing them a few feet, and get down and pretend that something had broken about the gearing. The driver did as instructed. Cook also dismounted and walked carelessly about, while the driver swore at the inate meanness of the stage gear.