Parker the Outlaw - by Peggy H. Benjamin from the 1962 edition (page 233-234)
A tall and lithe cowboy with a six shooter on each hip, limped into the Whitewater
Ranch during an evening in the fall of 1885. He said he was thrown from his
mount, Keno, who then vanished, and his dejected look prompted his hosts, "Cap
" and Dan Haskell, to offer him an evening meal. Later in the evening after
retrieving his mount and dropping a few dollars ina crap game, the visitor rode
into the darkness. Whitewater cowboys, intrigued at the crisp new bills left
by the cowboy, noted that the money had serial numbers in sequence. Money spent
in Whitman had the same characteristic. The Logan County sheriff, investigating,
decided the newcomer fit the description of Parker who robbed the paymaster
of Fort Benton, Montana of $10,000 of the soldiers' pay. The sheriff vowed to
get the culprit. Soon a two-story house and store sprang up near old Baldy with
Parker, the owner and proprietor. One dark night he went to Whitewater and buried
part of the loot in the running-in corral. A year passed and Parker's identity
became generally known. Then two years passed. Short of money, he rode to the
Whitewater and began digging up his buried loot. Just then "Cap" Haskell
and Harry Pinkerton rode up. In October as he and the cowboys at Whitewater
sat playing a crap game, three men rode in, one an Englishman who wore a monocle
and carried a cane. Identifying themselves as Federal Agents, they captured
Parker and asked Cap for a team and buckboard in which to transport their prisoner
to the railroad.
A few miles out in the hills the buckboard was drawn to a stop. Parker was thrown
to the ground and robbed of the twenty-five hundred dollars which he carried
in his money belt, and his guns. He walked back to Whitewater and took Dan's
gun from the wall and Cap's private horse and set out in pursuit of his abductors.
Cap, summoned by the cook, also went in search of the three men who had done
him out of the buckboard and team and Parker who had taken his horse. Concluding
the three men would likely intercept the Union Pacific Railroad at Kearney he
roade to North Platte and caught the first east bound train. Dan boarded the
train at Lexington, and both men on reaching Kearney looked up the sheriff of
Buffalo County. When the three men reached Kearney, they were nabbed and brought
to a speedy trial before the county judge. It developed that one was an escaped
convict from another state; the Englishman and other man were released.
Meanwhile Parker, failing to trace the three men, decided to return to his home.
While eating dinner in Arnold, he heard talk about the handsone strawberry roan
stallion at the Mildale Ranch and decided he must have him. He tricked a sixteen
year old lad from Connecticut, Fred Beardsley, into trading the stallion for
the horse he was riding. He decided to leave this part of the country for Texas,
Utah or wherever his presence was most welcome and he could operate more freely.
But, first, he needed guns, ammunition and money from the well-hidden cache
in his house. Riding swiftly due west, he left the valley and climbed to high,
broad Garfield Table, so level that he could see miles in every direction. He
had no fear that Fred would try to follow him. Cap's private mounth that he
had left behind, couldn't come within ten miles of the stallion.
He continued a straight northwesterly course, the stallion responding like the wind to his long-roweled spurs, his own excitement riding higher and higher. At this reate he would reach his house in a few hours. But wait; a horseman was coming up from the southeast. In the sun's reflection, Parker caught a gleam of light on the horseman's face. A monocle? Parker tightened the reins, slowing the stallion to a walk. He allowed the horseman to cross his path and move on ahead. Never losing sight of his prey, he came to the table's edge and skirted the canyon rim, looking for a place to decend.
Below him, a lone man caught the sound of horse's hoofs and looked up as Parker passed. Sheriff Doan, having completed a successful antelope hunt, was ready to leave for home with two carcasses strapped to his pack horse. "Hm-m," he mused, "That outlaw's getting mighty gay."
The horseman rode out of the canyons into the upper South Loup Valley, Parker followed, and Sheriff Doan brought up the rear.
Parker, riding into the county seat of Gandy, stopped and peered at the livery stable door where lounged a man wearing a monocle and carrying a cane. Parker's face grew black with anger. What could the Englishman be doing here unless he was on the way to his house for more of the stolen money? He leaped to the ground.
Doan, bringing up the rear, left his saddle horse and packhorse and concealed himself in a clump of nearby willows.
Parker rushed toward the Englishman, bitterly accosting him. The Englishman answered in kind, a violent quarrel ensued. Doan quietly left the willows. Stopping to pick up a gunny sack, he continued toward the livery stable.
Parker lashed out with his fist. The Englishman raised his cane to strike Parker over the head. At that moment Doan slipped through the livery stable door, brushing Parker lightly with the gunny sack. Parker, locked in blinding rage, turned slightly at the touch. Quick as a tiger, Doan thre his two hundred pound weight agaist him, knocking him to the ground. The two rolled and fought vigorously. Doan keeping a viselike grip on Parker's arms so that he couldn't reach for his gun.
Men rushed to the scene but as soon as they learned it was Parker they all stood back, afraid to make a move. The fight raged on. Finally Parker twisted enough to get Doan's thumb into his mouth. With his strong, white teeth he bit through the flesh to the bone. Blood streamed. Doan's face blanched from the excruciating pain, but he held on - for him it was a fight to the death. At last, word reached the office of County Judge Saunders. A whitehaired man in his mid sixties, he came on the run. Bending over the two, he opened his pocket knife and held the blade agaist Parker's jugular vein. "Spit out that thumb, you coyote," he ordered, "or I'll slit your ugly throat." Parker winced as the thin sharp knife blade pressed deeper into his neck. He looked into the judge's steely eyes and saw the relentless determination- the judge meant what he said. A violent shudder shook him. His fury slackened. His teeth fell away from Doan's thumb. A moment later, docile and battered, he walked with Doan to the county jail where he was locked inside.
Soon authorities swarmed into the tiny, unknown county seat; Gandy. The United
States Government wanted Parker for robbery; the territory of Arizona wanted
him for killing a sheriff; the state of Texas got him for the dasterdly murder
of his wife. As for Parker, he had just one thing to say, "Cap Haskell
put up with me for a long time. Tell him to take my house and call it square."
