“But it wasn’t long ’till word got around that Uncle Adam’s woman had up and left him, and moved her stuff over to Uncle Dick’s cabin. The next time Uncle Adam came into town, somebody asked him if Uncle Dick had stole his wife. ‘Hell no,’ says Uncle Adam, ‘it was a fair swap, all open and above board. Dick give me his best cow for the old woman, and two dollars to boot.’
“Folks got to laughing about it, and one day the sheriff stopped Uncle Adam in the street. ‘This here trading wives is against the law nowadays,’ says he, ‘And everybody knows a woman is worth more than a cow, anyhow.’ Uncle Adam laughed right in the sheriff’s face. ‘Don’t you believe it, Sheriff,’ he says, ‘Don’t you believe it! Why, that there cow of mine is three-fourths Jersey!’”
[Illustration: That there cow is three-fourths Jersey!]
It was during the winter of 1895-96. Bill Doolin, the Oklahoma outlaw was spending his “vacation” in Eureka Springs, taking the baths and hiding out from the law. He had allegedly killed three marshals at Ingalls, Okla., a short time before and committed other crimes over a period of several years of outlawry, and the law was hot on his trail when he disappeared at the first of the year, 1896.
Bill Tilghman, United States marshal, knew Doolin personally and set out to capture him. At a boarding house in Ingalls he learned that the outlaw had gone to some resort in Arkansas for his health and safety. The marshal selected Eureka Springs as the most likely place for Doolin’s hideout.
Tilghman arrived in Eureka Springs disguised as a preacher, wearing a Prince Albert coat and a derby hat. He registered at a hotel and left his baggage. He then walked to a little park in the center of town. A man was stooped over the spring, filling a jug with water. When he raised up the marshal saw that it was Doolin.
Tilghman knew the outlaw was quick on the draw and did not attempt to arrest him. Instead, he dropped into a nearby shop and watched him through the window. Doolin walked across the park, crossed a bridge that spanned a little stream, and ascended a flight of steps leading to a hotel.
Tilghman went back to the park, sat down and began thinking. He had left a shotgun at his hotel and his first thought was to get the gun, hide behind a tree and get his man as he came down the steps. But he wanted to take him alive. Then he devised what he thought was a better plan. He went to a nearby carpenter shop and ordered a box made long enough to hold his shotgun. It was to be hinged and easy to open. With this contraption he could sit in the park without attracting attention and get Doolin as he approached. The carpenter promised to have the box ready by late evening. He would polish it and make it look like a musical instrument case. That would mean another day in Eureka Springs. He would lay for Doolin early in the morning as he came from his hotel.