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Frank and George Coe, Charlie Bowdre, John Middleton, Hendry Brown, Tom O'Folliard, Jim French, Stephen Stevens, Bill Scroggins, and two others whose names have been forgotten, thirteen in all. They did not find Roberts but Roberts found them. While they were nooning at Blazer's sawmill, Roberts came splashing across Tularosa River on his old bay mule to meet his heroic death.

Frank Coe attempted to act as peacemaker and tried to save Roberts, but Roberts was as stubborn as he was brave and refused to be saved. Coe told the story of the fight in detail years afterward when he and his cousin, George Coe, were the only surviving eyewitnesses. It was a plain, unvarnished tale, seeming somehow to lack any special dramatic interest. But then Roberts was not in any way dramatic; only an illiterate, homely, commonplace fellow, looking as little like a hero as any one could imagine. The man who didn't amount to much simply fought his fight against desperate odds, did the best he could, and died. That's all there was to it.

"Brewer had heard that several men we were looking for were in Rinconada in the Mescalero reservation," said Coe, "and we went there but found nobody. We camped for the night in Rinconada and next day rode to Blazer's mill on Tularosa River. We got there about ten o'clock in the morning and Brewer ordered dinner. While we were eating, Middleton, who had been left outside to guard our saddle horses, came and reported to Brewer that 'a mighty well-armed man' had just ridden from across the river on a bay mule and was hitching down at the corral. That didn't excite anybody much, as well-armed men were common in the country just then, and we went on eating. I happened to get through first and went out into the yard. Roberts, with a rifle in his hand, was coming up from the