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time I ever saw him," says Mrs. Jaramillo. "He was eighteen years old and I was fifteen and back home for a vacation from St. Mary's convent school in Trinidad. It was the Kid's first visit to Fort Sumner. He had ridder. over from Lincoln with several of his men, among whom was José Chavez y Chavez. This Chavez y Chavez was a bad fellow; he later served a long term in the penitentiary; he was only recently released and now lives near Las Vegas. Telesfor Jaramillo, who was afterward my brother inlaw, was drunk and met Chavez on the street back of our house. Chavez wanted to shake hands with Telesfor and said, 'You and I are cousins.' That may have been true; I don't know; but Telesfor, being drunk, repudiated the relationship. He drew himself up and refused to shake hands. 'No thief is a cousin of mine,' he said. That made Chavez very mad and he drew his gun. 'I'll kill you for that,' he said.

"My mother saw it all and ran out and caught Telesfor by the arm and tried to drag him away. 'Don't shoot him,' she said to Chavez, 'he's drunk. Wait till he's sober and settle it.' But Chavez refused to be quieted. 'I don't care whether he's drunk or sober,' he said. 'He can't insult me.'

"Just then we saw a young man walking rapidly across the road toward us and someone in the little crowd that had gathered said, 'Here comes Billy the Kid.' I became very much frightened when I heard that name. I had heard many stories of Billy the Kid and his desperate exploits in the Lincoln County war and I said to myself, 'Now we will all be murdered.'

"The Kid had a hard little smile on his face when he came up to us and I was surprised that he looked so boyish and not a bit dangerous.