d a storm
raised he could not quell, even if his own sympathies had not drifted
with it when he learned its cause. His friend La Fer lay dead, filled
full of buckshot by Kit before Whitehill's reinforcements had reached
him, while Kit had slipped away through the underbrush, over rocks that
left no trail.

La Fer's death maddened his friends. There was little discussion. Only
one opinion prevailed. Taggart and Lee must die.

Nothing was known of the prisoner wanted in Arizona, so he was spared.

Taggart and Lee were put in the wagon, the former tightly bound, the
latter helpless from his wound. Short rope halters barely five feet long
were stripped from the horses, knotted round the prisoners' necks, and
fastened to the limb of a juniper tree. Taggart climbed to the high
wagon seat, took a header and broke his neck. The wagon was then pulled
away and Lee strangled.

With Cleveland, Lee, and Taggart dead, Engineer Webster and La Fer were
fairly well avenged. But Kit was still out, known as the leader and the
man who shot La Fer, and for days the hills were full of men hunting him.
Hiding in the rugged, thickly timbered hills of the Gila, taking needed
food at night, at the muzzle of his gun, from some isolated ranch, he was
hard to capture.

Had Kit chosen to mount himself and ride out of the country, he might
have escaped for good. But this he would not do. Dominated still by the
fatal curiosity and covetousness that first possessed him, later mastered
him, and then drove him into crime, bound to repossess himself of his
hidden treasure and go out to see the world, Kit would not leave the
Gila. He was alone, unaided, with no man left his friend, with all men
on the alert to capture or to kill him, the unequal contest nevertheless
lasted for many weeks.

There was only one man Kit at all trusted, a "nester" (small ranchman)
named Racketty Smith. One day, looking out from a leafy thicket in which
he lay hid, saw Racketty going along the road. A lonely outcast, craving
the sound of a human voice, believing Racketty at least neutral, Kit
hailed him and approached. As he drew near, Racketty covered him with
his rifle and ordered him to surrender. Surprised, taken entirely
unawares, Kit started to jump for cover, when Racketty fired, shattered
his right leg and brought him to earth. To spring upon and disarm Kit
was the work of an instant.

Kit was sentenced to imprisonment at Santa Fe. A few years ag