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of 'em killed in Indian wars. When the Government decided to abandon Fort Sumner as a military post, the bodies was moved to the national cemetery at Santa Fé. The graveyard was then laid out with gravelled paths. The headstones and wooden crosses had names and dates on 'em. You'd see flowers on the graves now and then. The place, you might say, was a decent spot for dead men to sleep in. It looked like holy ground—a campo santo, as the Mexicans called it. But that was long ago. Now the name it goes by is 'Hell's Half-Acre.' It looks blighted; like it had a curse on it. It's a graveyard of murdered men. Twelve men who died with their boots on are buried in it. They say it's haunted. Some folks'll drive a mile out of their way at night to keep from passin' it."

Old Man Foor knocks the dottle of tobacco out of his pipe against the heel of his boot.

"Of the twelve men who was killed," he goes on, "two was Mexicans, one a Negro soldier who had deserted from the army, and the other nine white men. Maybe I can remember 'em—le'me see. There was Billy the Kid, Charlie Bowdre, and Tom O'Folliard; they're buried together in a row. There was George Peacock, killed by a fellow named White. Then Felipe Beaubien. They said he was killed while tryin' to hold up Felipe Holtman's store, but I never believed that; I think it was plain murder. Francisco Gallego, killed by Tom Moran, a cow-puncher, was another. And John Legg, a saloon keeper. John Farris, killed by Barney Mason, is buried here, too. Joe Grant, killed by Billy the Kid in José Valdez's saloon, lies just a few feet from the man who killed him. That's nine. The Negro deserter makes ten. I forget who the other two were. They were all killed in old Fort Sumner.