Most of the big Montana cow outfits moved their herds north of the Missouri River between 1888 and 1894. The point of crossing on the Missouri was an old steamboat landing called Rocky Point where Jim Norris had a saloon.

When I crossed the river there in 1889, there was no one living there but the little old man. He had an old hand ferry boat that he took people across the river with. The night I stayed with him, he told me he had some fine gin and gave me a drink, which I found out was straight alcohol and the one drink nearly strangled me, but old Uncle Jim, as he was called, drank it like water and seemed to do quite well on it. Every little while he would go to the bank of the river and holler at the top of his voice, “Do you want to bring your wagon over?” There would not be anybody in sight, but he seemed to get a great kick out of make-believe.

I worked with Kid Curry that summer on the roundup. He worked for the Diamond outfit and I worked for the DHS. Both outfits worked the range together. Kid was a fine fellow at that time and a good cowboy—that was before he became an outlaw. I have read where some writers told what a cold-blooded killer he was and where he had held up banks and so forth, and I know from some of the dates given that he was blamed for a great many things he did not do.

I am not trying to make a hero out of the Kid or say that I approve of some things he done, but the public at large does not know all the circumstances leading up to where he first got into trouble.

Charlie Russell knew Kid Curry and has given me his analysis of his character (and he seldom made a mistake in the reading of human nature). Charlie figured any normal man might have went the route the Kid did.

I am going to set down some of the facts regarding the Kid’s becoming an outlaw. His name was Harvey Curry. He had an older brother, Henry Curry. They had a little ranch in the Badlands of the Missouri River and ran a few cattle and horses. Both the brothers were fine boys at that time and would give anyone the shirt off their back if they were in need.

Now there was a little mining town sprung up in the Little Rockies not far from the Curry Ranch. The outstanding character in that town was a man by the name of Pike Landusky, a prospector who had found some fairly rich prospects, and as there was some excitement about the find quite a lot of people went to the mining camp and Pike being about the first one on the ground, the town was named Landusky.

The town was about fifty miles from the railroad and farther from the Sheriff’s office, so Pike was appointed a Deputy Sheriff. Now Pike was not a bad sort of a fellow as a rule, but had a reputation as somewhat of a gun-fighter and was rather proud of it—he didn’t have much education and very little intelligence—but was proud of his authority as a Deputy Sheriff.

The Kid was in town one night with some fr............