Cook's success was also contributed to by many talented detectives. N. K. Boswell was one such man. John Kelly killed a young man named Charley Maxwell. Kelly did not want to pay Maxwell some wages owed to him. Kelly fled to Missouri where Boswell tracked him down with the aid of a Missouri sheriff. He captured Kelly after fearlessly holding off a mob led by Kelly's brother. While attempting to take him to the train station, Boswell had to hold off this gang twice more. He was even shot in the process. Yet he succeeded in getting his man to the station and turning him over to a Wyoming sheriff where he would stand trial.
Another such man was detective Arnold. A thief named Bemis stole several hundred dollars from Wells-Fargo, in Syracuse, New York. Ultimately Arnold tracked him to Santa Fe. He no longer had the stolen money as he had gambled it away in a poker game. He was ready to willingly go with Arnold. Unfortunately, the hotel proprietor was not ready for him to leave as he had not settled up on his bill. He got some armed men and tried to take Bemis. Arnold held them off. Later on the stagecoach, a sheriff's posse notified by the hotel proprietor, attempted to take Bemis again. Arnold was able to evade them simply by using their real names, which the hotel man did not know. He was then able to return to the rail head in Denver and get Bemis shipped back to New York.
The detective agency existed for many years and had many success where other organizations did not. They served as a model for others, such as the Pinkerton Agency, who observed and adopted their techniques in future crime solving.
(SOURCE: "Hands Up; Or, Twenty Years of Detective Life in the Mountains and on the Plains," General D. J. Cook, Norman, Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma Press, 1971.)
