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"Ygenio Salazar lives in Las Tablas now, and if you look him up, he will take care of you," Cordoba told him, and gave him directions how to find the house.

"You bet I'll look up my old compadre," said Billy, and he started off again along the mountain trail.

Las Tablas is a little Mexican village near the edge of the foothills on the north side of the Capitan range. It was night, and a half-moon was shining when the Kid drew near. Following Cordoba's directions it was easy to pick out the home of Ygenio Salazar, close friend of other days who had fought by his side in the three days' battle at the McSween house in Lincoln. Hidden on a dark hillside by the road, the Kid gave a shrill whistle.

"I was getting ready for bed," so Salazar tells the story, "when I heard the whistle. I cocked my ears. It was repeated several times. I said to my wife, 'What do you suppose that is?' She was a little alarmed. 'I don't know,' she answered, 'but you better stay in the house.' Those were bad times and I had made enemies in the Lincoln County war. I hesitated to investigate. But the whistle kept up so persistently that at last I opened the door and stepped outside. The hills were dark. The village was silent; most everyone had gone to bed. I could see nobody. Again I heard the whistle. It came from close by. I walked up the road toward it. Finally I made out a man standing at the edge of some piñon brush, and he was waving at me.

"I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw Billy the Kid standing before me. The news of his escape had not yet travelled across the mountains.

"'Nombre de Dios, Billy,' I said, 'can this be you?'

"'It's me, all right, Ygenio,' he answered.

"'Why, I dropped in to see you only—— When was it?'