Page:Saga of Billy the Kid.djvu/273

"'A week ago.'

"'And you were a prisoner then, bound hand and foot and sentenced to die on the gallows in only a few days more.'

"'Yes, Ygenio, but the idea of dying on the gallows somehow didn't have any special attraction for me. So I pulled my freight. I was sorry to disappoint a lot of people who expected to see a good show but I had other plans. But, say, amigo, I'm hungry. Can't you rustle me something to eat?'

"I took him to my home and my wife cooked him a nice, hot meal. He was nervous inside four walls, and as soon as he had eaten, he and I went off into the brush where we sat down on the ground and Billy told me the details of his escape. He said he had been watching and waiting for just such an opportunity ever since he had been a prisoner. He felt sure, if he could get a weapon, he could shoot his way out. All his plans centred on getting a weapon. He did not think there ever would be a possibility of getting Ollinger's six-shooter; Ollinger watched him too closely all the time. Bell was not so vigilant. He played cards with Bell every day, and at every game he figured how he could grab Bell's revolver. He seemed to feel a real regret at Bell's death.

"'Bell had been good to me,' he said. 'I never intended to kill him and I wouldn't have done so if he had permitted me to lock him in the armoury. It was foolish of him to run down the stairs. Then there was nothing left but to kill him. He ought to have known that; and I couldn't have missed him if I had tried.'

"But when the Kid told of Ollinger's death, he spoke with bitterness and, even in the darkness, I could see his eyes flash.