Page:Saga of Billy the Kid.djvu/274
"'Ollinger was the meanest man that ever lived,' he said, 'and I hated him worse than any man on earth. When I shot Bell, I thought Ollinger would do exactly what he did—come running over to see what was the matter. As I stood by the window with the shotgun ready for him and saw him start across the road, I knew I had him. He played right into my hand. But I didn't want him to die without knowing I was the man who killed him. So I called, 'Hello, Bob,' to make him look up. You ought to have seen his face when he saw me sighting at him over the barrel of his own gun with which, just a little while before, he had threatened to kill me. He knew he was gone, and the coward's eyes popped out of his head with terror. It was the happiest moment of my life when I pulled the trigger and filled him full of buckshot. My only regret was that I could kill him only once. No matter what chances I had to take, I never would have left Lincoln until I had killed him.'
"I asked the Kid what he proposed to do now," Salazar continued. "He said he was going to Fort Sumner to see his sweetheart.
"'It will be very dangerous to go there,' I told him. 'Garrett's posses will soon be scouring the country for you, and Fort Sumner will be one of the first places they will search. You ought to start for the border at once and get into Mexico where you will be safe.'
"'I'm going to see my girl,' he said, 'if it costs me my life.'
"We talked until midnight. He wouldn't come to my house to sleep. He was expecting pursuit and thought it wiser to sleep out. I brought him some blankets and he made his bed down in the brush.
"'I will never be taken alive again, Ygenio,' he said