out of jail on bond after he had arrested him in the first place.
The marshal rode a beautiful sorrel, a reddish-brown horse, with a light colored mane. Most marshals owned fine horses that were capable of catching ordinary horses. Sometimes outlaws would be tipped off about who a marshal was by the way they sat in the saddle and by the quality of their horses and saddles. There were only 3 other negro marshals, besides Bass, at that time and someone had seen the marshal coming and tipped Webb off.
Successful marshals made a lot of money and spared no expense when it came to fine horses or guns. This marshal tended to wear a bow-tie and suit, even on a dusty trail. He wore a pair of Colt 1873 Single Action Army .45 revolvers, carried in a black handmade “cross-draw” leather holster rig with the backs of the handles facing to the front. Most who saw that rig knew who he was. He also carried a Winchester .38-.40 carbine in a scabbard attached to his saddle. He pondered a moment on why he had gone for the rifle in his scabbard instead of the Colts. He guessed it was just instinctive due to the other man having a rifle. Usually he preferred the Colts at close range. He was ambidextrous and could draw either or both Colts just as well and shoot them equally well. He was just as good with his rifle with either hand. No matter which direction an outlaw came from, he could react quickly. He was 46-years-old at the time, but could still hold his own in a fist fight. At 6-feet, two-inches and 200 pounds, he was still in good shape for his age. He was an impressive figure, taller than most men of his time. He was a man who did not think very much about himself. He did not feel like being colored was an advantage or a disadvantage. He figured his abilities spoke more about him as a man than did his color. And most men of any color respected him for that.
All U.S. Marshals at that time were required to travel with a chuck wagon and cook, a “prison” wagon and guard, and one hired gun or posse man. It was not unusual to accumulate 10 to 15 outlaws on a single trip and someone had to guard them and feed them while the marshal was hunting down other outlaws that might be in the area. Sometimes he took the posse man with him to make an arrest and sometimes he went by himself.
The marshal was on his way back to the wagon, which already held ten prisoners, when he came across an angry mob in the process of lynching a man who had been accused of stealing cattle. The ranch hands had tracked him down and were about to administer their own form of justice. The marshal rode into the crowd and proclaimed, “I’m Bass Reeves, United States Marshal, and I’ll take this man to Judge Parker’s court. You can come to Fort Smith and have charges filed against him and he’ll get a fair trial.”
“Like Hell you will!” one of the ranch hands screamed. “We caught him and we aim to hang him right here.”
One of the other ranch hands restrained the man and said, “You don’t want to mess with this marshal. As you can see, he’s already killed Jim Webb who’s tied to the horse behind him. He can kill you or whip you either way you want.”
“I’d like to see him whip my ass!” the ranch hand countered, seemingly not intimidated by the dead man.
Bass calmly stepped down off his horse and said “You can have the first punch.” The ranch hand stepped down from his horse and threw a punch and Bass countered with a punch that knocked the man to the ground. He didn’t get up. The marshal thought for a moment he’d have to draw his Colts and had his hands in the position to do so, but the crowd seemed to calm down when they saw he was willing to draw. Most of them knew he was fast as lightning and they’d just witnessed him knocking down the biggest cowboy they had with them. They knew the man he’d killed, Jim Webb, had been a foreman on their ranch. Bass had a reputation and they knew he wasn’t going to back down, so they did. Bass cut the man they were going to lynch down and took him to his wagon, along with Jim Webb. He tied the man to the horse behind Webb. He figured the horse could carry two people, no further than they were going.
The next day, the marshal and his cook and wagons all headed back to Fort Smith. It had been a very profitable trip. He had close to $900 in fees due to him, besides the bounty on Webb. Even after paying the cook $20 per month, a guard $3 per day and a posse man $3 per day and paying for all their food and other expenses, he had a nice deposit for the bank. His herd of fine horses was growing and he’d be able to retire in comfort whenever he got tired of the trail. Most of his horses were top of the line and would bring $100 each or more. He was living a good life, although dangerous, but the journey to this point had not been easy.
They were more than 80 miles west of Fort Smith, past the zone known as the “dead line.” The dead line was where outlaws posted threats to any lawman who might be looking for them saying if they crossed this line they’d soon be dead. As they passed through the area, on the way back to Fort Smith, Bass was amused to find a note from Jim Webb that said, “Bass Reeves, if you cross this line and attempt to arrest me, you’ll soon be dead.” He pulled the note from the tree and added it to his collection. Bass had crossed this line many times and had been shot at many times, but had been wounded only one time. The dead line ran north and south through Fort Gibson and Muskogee, and followed the North to South path of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Rail Road.
The only law in the Indian Territory, besides U. S. Marshals who traveled there, were Indian police, known as “Lighthorse”. The Lighthorse only had jurisdiction over Indians or Indian freedmen. Indian freedmen were negro slaves who’d been traded for or bought by Indians and freed after the Civil War. The marshal’s territory covered the Indian Nation, where Indians had been herded to from all over the country across the Trail of Tears.
The Indians had been given these lands under a treaty that had since been challenged, due to the Indian Nation’s perceived support of the Confederacy. There were roughly 25,000 white men living in the Indian territory and at least 20,000 of them were outlaws preying on the Indians or the railroads or the ranchers. The fact they were white didn’t stop Bass from arresting or killing them. Justice, in Judge Parker’s Court, was indifferent to race.
Many of the arrests that Bass made were for “introducing,” which was the illegal practice of selling whiskey or other alcoholic beverages to the Indians. But there were also many thieves, murderers and rapists that he dealt with.
Some of the outlaws made a good living robbing the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Rail Road, the Rock Island, Pacific Rail Road,the Kansas and Arkansas Valley Rail Road, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Rail Road or the St. Louis & San Francisco Rail Road. Most of the best rewards were paid by the railroads.
The Indian Territory consisted of the Cherokee, Osage, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Wichita, Caddo, Comanche, Kiowa, Apache, Chickasaw, Creek and Choctaw Indians. Bass had lived with the Indians for many years as a runaway slave and knew almost all of the Indian leaders and their policemen and spoke most of the Indian languages fluently. That gave him an edge over the other marshals. The Lighthorse and other Indians he knew fed him information regarding a certain outlaw’s whereabouts.
After the first day of travel, the group stopped to camp for the night and the prisoners were all attached to a long, heavy chain outside the wagon. That way they could be fed and could sleep more comfortably overnight. The negro cook, William Leach, was busy cooking the nightly meal, complete with biscuits and a big pot of stew, over an open fire. He had already cooked the meat for the stew in a big frying pan. Bass went over and got himself a biscuit to chew on prior to the meal. His dog, Bandit, was standing on his hind legs and begging for a share. Bass threw the dog a couple of bites, which really made the cook mad and he told Bass so. The cook had a really bad temper and that had bothered Bass in the past. He had also been in trouble before and Judge Parker had thrown him in jail a few times, but he was a good cook.
Bass ignored the cook and began to clean his rifle. He had shot some game with it for the cook and wanted to clean it before he needed it again. He was unloading the rifle, one shell at a time, when he realized a cartridge that was in the chamber seemed to be stuck. When he looked at it, he realized that
