CHAPTER XVII.
A CHAMPION BUFFALO-HUNTER.
Having given up the real estate business Buffalo Bill received a proposition from the Goddard Brothers, who had contracted to furnish subsistence for thousands of construction employes of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. The amount required was very large to procure which involved hard riding; but the labor was small compared with the danger to be incurred from the Indians, who were killing every white man they could find in that section. Nevertheless, an offer of $500 per month for the service made Billy unmindful of the exertion or peril, and he went to work under contract to supply all the meat required. During this engagement he had no end of wonderful escapes from bands of Indians, not a few of whom he sacrificed to secure his own safety. By actual count he also killed under his contract with the Goddard Brothers, four thousand two hundred and eighty buffaloes. To appreciate the extent of this slaughter, by approximate measurement these buffaloes, if laid on the ground end to end, would make a line more than five miles long; and if placed on top of each other they would make a pile two miles high.
SCOUTING FOR BUFFALOES.
By special arrangements all the heads of the largest buffaloes killed by Bill were preserved and delivered to the Kansas Pacific Railroad Company, by which they were turned into excellent advertisements for the road. Many of these heads may still be seen in prominent places, marking the center of an oval board containing the advertisement of the road.
So well had Cody performed his part of the contract that the men connected with the Kansas Pacific road gave him the appellation by which he is still known throughout the world, “Buffalo Bill.”
A record of all his battles with the Indians during this period of professional hunting would be so long that few could read it without tiring, for there is a sameness connected with attacks and escapes which it is difficult to recite in language always sparkling with interest. But Buffalo Bill, being a brave man under all circumstances when bravery is essential and cautious when that element subserved the purpose better, was almost daily in a position of danger, and many times escaped almost like the Hebrew children from the furnace.
So justly celebrated had Buffalo Bill now become that Kit Carson, on his return from Washington City in the fall of 1867, stopped at Hays City to make his acquaintance. Carson was so well pleased with Bill’s appearance and excellent social qualifications that he remained for several days the guest of the celebrated buffalo killer and scout. Upon parting, the renowned Kit expressed the warmest admiration for his host, and conveyed his consideration by inviting Bill to visit him at Fort Lyon, Colo., where he intended making his home. But the death of Carson the following May prevented the visit.
Like every other man who achieves distinction by superior excellence in some particular calling, Buffalo Bill (who had now shed the familiar title of Billy) had his would-be rivals as buffalo-killers. Among this number was a well-known scout named Billy Comstock, who sought to dispute the claim of champion. Comstock was quite famous among the Western army being one of the oldest scouts and most skillful hunters. He was murdered by Indians seven years after the event about to be recorded, while scouting for Custer.
Buffalo Bill was somewhat startled one day upon receipt of a letter from a well known army officer, offering to wager the sum of $500 that Comstock could kill a greater number of buffaloes in a certain given time, under stipulated conditions, than any other man living. This was, of course, a challenge to Buffalo Bill, who upon mentioning the facts, found hundreds of friends anxious to accept the wager, or who would put up any amount that Bill’s claim to the championship could not be successfully disputed by any person living.