Chapter 2

New Mexico Territory, November, 1892

Action had certainly slowed a bit. I had not exchanged gunfire with anyone for several weeks and I was beginning to enjoy it. I wasn't hurting for money since I still had a goodly amount from when I left home in Alabama, plus that big haul I made when I caught Johnathon Slinger. Maybe I should think of retiring? No way! Boredom was too horrible to contemplate! Over $4000 was too much money to carry around in a money belt; if nothing else, it was too heavy. I was going to have to come up with a solution, but I was leery of putting it in a bank—they were too easy to rob.

I had heard a story that a safe with a round door was almost impossible to blow open. A time lock helped to discourage conventional thievery. I thought that next time I was in Santa Fe, I would check for a bank with those assets. If I could find one and it had a generally good reputation, I would take a chance on it.

I had been sitting on my ass in one saloon or another for three weeks trying to get information on a suitable target when one walks in the door. I had spent a lot of time pouring over those wanted posters I had picked up and I had most of them memorized. The guy that just walked in was worth $500 if I could deliver him, dead or alive, to a judge only forty miles away. This one was wanted for the murder of a rich merchant during a robbery. He had been convicted, already, so I only had to deliver him for the hanging. Now, if I could just convince him to cooperate. His name was Josia Phillips, and he didn't look like he would take easy to being hanged.

Phillips sat down at a poker table and began to play. He was continually complaining about the quality of the cards he was getting and I began to wonder if he was drunk. I kept a close eye on him while I nursed a beer. He was really browbeating the meek little guy sitting next to him and was well on his way to being the world's worst SOB. Before I had a chance to get bored with his attitude, Phillips drew his gun and pointed it at his neighbor. This looked like my opportunity, so as Phillips was starting to pull back the hammer on his pistol, I drew and shot him. Of course, this got everybody's attention.

As it happened, the town marshal was in the room, so he took over, immediately. Everyone calmed down when I showed them Phillps' pistol still in his hand and with the hammer pulled to half-cock. The meek little man being threatened by Phillips was the town doctor, and there was considerable relief all around when it turned out that I had saved him. The marshal took charge of Phillips body, and I promised to come around to his office the next morning. I had a drink on the house, and then went to bed.

The next morning at the marshal's office, I showed him the wanted poster and explained that I wanted Phillip's body released to me so that I could take it in for the reward. The marshal was sympathetic and realized that this would save the town some money. He gave me the body and a note to whom it may concern as to what happened. I thanked the marshal and prepared to leave town.

Two days later, I turned in Phillips body and collected my reward. So far, November was starting to look brighter. I also took the opportunity to cull my stack of posters and pick up some new ones.

You may wonder why I was able to have so much action in such a short time, but keep two facts in mind: There were very few lawmen in NMT who were willing to be shot at and the high density of lawmen and bounty hunters in Texas was just pushing the law breakers our way. There was a huge amount of lawlessness in NMT and not many willing to stand up to try to stop it. QED, I had a steady job!

I decided to head toward Santa Fe and see about finding a suitable bank for my savings. I hoped to pick up some more rewards on the way. Every town with a decent saloon was a stopover point as I worked my way north. I was in no hurry, and I hoped to make this a profitable trip.

One day, as I paused just off the road to answer the call of nature, I heard the pounding of hooves headed my way. A stagecoach was rushing toward me with a "road agent" in hot pursuit. He was firing his pistol as he raced by, and I could tell that he was a rank amateur. Any one with any experience or a grain of common sense would know that you could not aim and shoot while racing at full speed on the back of a horse. However, any bullet flying around was dangerous; it could accidentally hit somebody. I figured that I should put a stop to this nonsense, so I grabbed my rifle from its scabbard and aimed for the bandit. He was less than two hundred yards away when I fired the first shot. I caught him in the shoulder and he fell off his horse. Of course, he broke a lot of bones, including his neck, when he fell, so he was dead when I got to him. Very sensibly, the stagecoach never paused in its mad rush; I don't know what happened to them.

The bandit was not on any of my posters, so I just stripped him of his valuables and took possession of his horse. I was getting a lot of experience in selling horses, though I rarely bought one. I pulled the corpse off the road, out of the way, and just left him. I figured that the wild animals would make short work of him and they deserved a picnic.

This was my first trip to Santa Fe, so I really enjoyed looking around. There were a lot of beautiful buildings in the Spanish colonial style. Since I had been spending most of my time in southern NMT, the weather seemed a bit cold to me; I attribute that to it now being early December. I asked about banks and two were mentioned.

The First New Mexico Bank was the largest, so I checked it out first. I went in and asked to see the manager. After waiting a few minutes, I was ushered into a sumptuous office. The manager was very affable and agreed to show me their vault, once I explained why I was there. They had the requisite round door with the time lock, so that part was acceptable; however, I couldn't help feeling like I was being sold snake oil the whole time I was there. I thanked the manager for his courtesy and went to find the other bank.

The Santa Fe Bank was in a sturdy, businesslike building, but not as fancy as the other one. I went in and asked to see the manager. Almost immediately, I was ushered into a rather plain, but comfortable, office, and the manager rose from behind his desk to greet me. After shaking hands, and some small talk, I explained what I was looking for. The manager, Mr. Jakobs, was very understanding of my concern and showed me their vault. It, too, had the round door with a time lock. This time I felt like I was being treated as a valued future customer, and I liked the atmosphere immediately. Before I left, I deposited $4000 in a savings account.

Feeling much lighter in spirit and in body weight, though still carrying over $450, I left to find the restaurant recommended by Mr. Jakobs. After a very good meal, I went to find the bordello also recommended by Mr. Jakobs. This was another winner!

I was able to arrange a bath, a shave, and a haircut before visiting the ladies of the house. Feeling much better, I selected a very good looking Latina who said to call her Doloros. I found that Doloros had also recently had a bath, so I was pleased to join with her. Sex with Doloros was more relaxing than adventurous, but very satisfying. I presume that Doloros liked me, too, because she asked that I ask for her when I came back. I thanked her for a very nice evening and left her a generous tip as I departed for my hotel. All in all, it was a very enjoyable, but expensive, evening.

Back to business! I felt recharged after my time with Doloros, and I felt more comfortable after my trip to the bank. Therefore, it's time to make more money. The weather around Santa Fe this time of year was too cold for me, so I headed south. I heard that there was a rash of bank robberies near here, so I looked for some sort of pattern.

The robberies appeared to fit the style of Kid Chrisp's gang, all of whom were on posters. The robberies also appeared to fit a regular schedule of time and place, as if the gang was meeting, holding the robbery, and then splitting up again. I checked my map and calender and figured out the most likely town and date for their next job. Dry Creek on Thursday of next week looked like a good bet, and I had plenty of time to get there.

I rode into Dry Creek on Wednesday and booked a room at the hotel/saloon. Dry Creek was a medium size town for that part of NMT, so it had one hotel and four saloons. There were two general stores, a barber shop, a "Mexican" restaurant, two livery stables and, surprise, a church, but no jail. The bank was in a building unto itself. All of the other buildings of the town were well spaced away from the bank. I don't know if this was planned, but I can't see the reason, if it was.

I was pretty sure that I had made a good guess on place and date for the next robbery, because the hotel was nearly full, and why should that be? I sat in the lobby and watched the guests as they went about their business. I spotted all five of the gang, including Kid Chrisp, himself. Since I was the sixth, and final, hotel guest, it was pretty obvious what was what. I said nothing to any of the locals, since I was afraid that the gang would be scared off, and I didn't want to split the rewards. Fortunately for me, the hotel rooms were small, and the crooks did not want to share rooms; therefore, I was able to try to capture the gang one at a time after each was in his room.

The hotel rooms were all on the second floor and there was a porch which ran around the entire outside of the building, except on the East, where a wall was shared with the restaurant. Each room had a window and a door opening onto this porch, and I hoped to use it to gain entry to the rooms. As each gang member wandered back to his room from one of the saloons, I used a skeleton key to follow him into the room and zap him in the back of the head with a sock filled with wet sand. I then tied and gagged him and went to the next victim. Once I had all five taken care of, I went to bed.

The next morning, I used handcuffs to bind the crooks together and marched them down to the desk at gunpoint to check them out. Each one paid his bill, and I marched them to the restaurant for breakfast. Still bound together, eating was awkward, but they managed. I then marched them to the livery stable and tied each one to his horse with leg irons running under the horse's belly. All this activity attracted a crowd, since it was the nearest thing to a circus that Dry Creek had ever seen.

This gang operated over all of NMT, so I needed only to take them to the nearest courthouse to have them processed. Therefore, we made the journey in one day. This was my best payday, yet. I got $7550 for the five crooks. I also did my usual routine with the posters. This was way too much money to keep on my person, so I went back to my bank in Santa Fe. Mr. Jakobs welcomed me, personally, when I made my deposit of $7500. Mr. Jakobs remarked that I now had a total of $11,500 deposited at a generous interest rate of one-half per cent, compounding annually. Maybe I'll be rich one day, but I'm not holding my breath.