[Illustration:  THE RECAPTURE OF BEVINS.]

After breakfasting we resumed our journey, and nothing worth of note again occurred until we reached the Arkansas river, where we found a vacant cabin and at once took possession of it for the night.  There was no likelihood of Bevins again trying to escape, for his foot had swollen to an enormous size, and was useless.  Believing that Williams could not escape from the cabin, we unbound him.  We then went to sleep, leaving Long Doc on guard, the cabin being comfortably warmed and well lighted by the fire.  It was a dark, stormy night—­so dark that you could hardly see your hand before you.  At about ten o’clock, Williams asked Long Doc to allow him to step to the door for a moment.

Long Doc, who had his revolver in his hand, did not think it necessary to wake us up, and believing that he could take care of the prisoner, he granted his request.  Williams thereupon walked to the outer edge of the door, while Long Doc, revolver in hand, was watching him from the inside.  Suddenly Williams made a spring to the right, and before Doc could even raise his revolver, he had dodged around the house.  Doc jumped after him, and fired just as he turned a corner, the report bringing us all to our feet, and in an instant we knew what had happened.  I at once covered Bevins with my revolver, but as I saw that he could hardly stir, and was making no demonstration, I lowered the weapon.  Just then Doc came in swearing “a blue streak,” and announced that Williams had escaped.  There was nothing for us to do except to gather our horses close to the cabin and stand guard over them for the rest of the night, to prevent the possibility of Williams sneaking up and stealing one of them.  That was the last I ever saw or heard of Williams.

We finally got back to Fort Lyon with Bevins, and General Carr, to whom I immediately reported, complimented us highly on the success of our trip, notwithstanding we had lost one prisoner.  The next day we took Bevins to Boggs’ ranch on Picket Wire Creek, and there turned him over to the civil authorities, who put him in a log jail to await his trial.  He never was tried, however, for he soon made his escape, as I expected he would do.  I heard no more of him until 1872, when I learned that he was skirmishing around on Laramie Plains at his old tricks.  He sent word by the gentleman from whom I gained this information, that if he ever met me again he would kill me on sight.  He finally was arrested and convicted for robbery, and was confined in the prison at Laramie City.  Again he made his escape, and soon afterwards he organized a desperate gang of outlaws who infested the country north of the Union Pacific railroad, and when the stages began to run between Cheyenne and Deadwood, in the Black Hills, they robbed the coaches and passengers, frequently making large hauls of plunder.  They kept this up for some time, till finally most of the gang were caught, tried, convicted, and sent to the penitentiary for a number of years.  Bill Bevins and nearly all of his gang are now confined in the Nebraska state prison, to which they were transferred, from Wyoming.