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good friend of ours for several years, and, once a friend,it was hard to change him."

Frank Coe gives another version of the story.

"The Kid," said Coe, "figured Chisum owed him five hundred dollars. He said Chisum had promised to pay him for fighting on the McSween-Chisum side during the feud and had not kept his promise. He had tried to find Chisum and collect the debt but Chisum had always dodged him. They met finally in Fort Sumner.

"'Hello,Chisum,' said Billy. 'I've been looking for you to collect that money you owe me.'

"Chisum smiled that dry smile of his that saved his life more than once.

"'And I have been looking for you to pay it to you, Billy,' he said.

"The Kid remarked that right then was a good time to it and Chisum wrote him a check for the five hundred dollars.

"'Don't you fail to let this check go through,' said Billy as he stuffed it in his pocket. 'If you stop it, I'll kill you if it's the last thing I ever do.'

"'Don't worry,' replied Chisum. 'You can cash it anytime you like. I'll honour it.'

"That's all there was to it," added Coe, "except that Chisum honoured the check."

Billy the Kid lost three members of his band in 1880 at Tascosa on the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle, where he was camped for several weeks disposing of a herd of horses stolen in the Bonito Cañon, many of them from Charles Fritz, into whose family Jimmy Dolan, Murphy's old partner, had married. Hendry Brown, Fred Wayte, and John Middleton, all of whom had taken part with the Kid in a number of desperate affrays,