Deadly Daring Deadwood Dick

About the same time that Wheeler was thinking up Deadwood Dick, out west came a young fellow, of about 20 years, who had one grand ambition. It wasn't to discover gold, or become a famous lawman, or any of those things. This fellow, Dick Clarke, just wanted to fulfill his life's ambition, and that was to be a stable hand someplace.

Dick fulfilled his desires out west when he hired on, at $15 a month, to swamp stalls at Crook City, which wasn't all that far from the town of Deadwood. But then the troubles started. First off, outlaw Sam Bass and his gang robbed the Deadwood stage. Then, as it was reported to Dick by his friend Hank, some Indians, thought to be Sioux, went on the rampage after a prospector killed an Indian and cut his head off. It seems that both fellows thought it best to stay close in town, just to be on the safe side. Hank owned a gun, of sorts, but Dick was gunless. Dick tried to get Hank to let him carry the gun when his friend wasn't in need of it, but it was nothin' doin'. Hank did relent and let Dick carry the gun when he had to make it in the dark for the outhouse, allowing that it was well known that the outhouse was a favorite ambush spot for savages looking to life a white scalp.

Matters were edgy enough, what with outlaws and Indians, on the prod. Then Wild Bill Hickok got himself shot in the back of the head in Deadwood while he was playing cards.

Things progressed from there pretty calm. Then one day Dick and Hank had to make a trip into Deadwood to purchase some things for their boss. They were paused out in front of the Green Front Saloon, attempting to read the list the boss had given them. They then figured they'd have better luck sorting it out after they'd had a drink. They were just about to turn in to the saloon when a filthy lump dressed in greasy buckskins and swearing to blue blazes was tossed outside and into the street. If the boys were hoping to see the grand sites of Deadwood they could not claim to have encountered none other than Calamity Jane.

Over the years, as Dick Clarke was trying his hand at ranching, then tending bar for a time,

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