r
like a raven's wing. He was too nice a man for the company he was in.
We looked the 'Black Book' over afterward for any description of
him. At that time there were over four thousand criminals and outlaws
described in it, but there was no description that would fit him.
For this reason we supposed that he must live far in the interior of
Mexico.

"Our saddle stock was brought up, and our wounded were bandaged as
best they could be. My wound was the worst, so they concluded to send
me back. One of the boys went with me, and we made a fifty-mile ride
before we got medical attention. While I was in the hospital I got my
divvy of the prize money, something over four hundred dollars."

When Ramrod had finished his narrative, he was compelled to submit to
a cross-examination at the hands of Cushion-foot, for he delighted
in a skirmish. All his questions being satisfactorily answered,
Cushion-foot drew up his saddle alongside of where Ramrod lay
stretched on a blanket, and seated himself. This was a signal to the
rest of us that he had a story, so we drew near, for he spoke so low
that you must be near to hear him. His years on the frontier were rich
in experience, though he seldom referred to them.

Addressing himself to Ramrod, he began: "You might live amongst these
border Mexicans all your life and think you knew them; but every day
you live you'll see new features about them. You can't calculate
on them with any certainty. What they ought to do by any system of
reasoning they never do. They will steal an article and then give it
away. You've heard the expression 'robbing Peter to pay Paul.' Well,
my brother played the role of Paul once himself. It was out in Arizona
at a place called Las Palomas. He was a stripling of a boy, but could
palaver Spanish in a manner that would make a Mexican ashamed of his
ancestry. He was about eighteen at this time and was working in a
store. One morning as he stepped outside the store, where he slept,
he noticed quite a commotion over around the custom-house. He noticed
that the town was full of strangers, as he crossed over toward the
crowd. He was suddenly halted and searched by a group of strange men.
Fortunately he had no arms on him, and his ability to talk to them,
together with his boyish looks, ingratiated him in their favor, and
they simply made him their prisoner. Just at that moment an alcalde
rode up to the group about him, and was ordered to halt. He saw at a
glance they