To Hell on a Fast Horse (14 page)

Mason told Wild he had seen Wilson with counterfeit bills, and that he had been propositioned by Dan Dedrick (one of the counterfeiting ringleaders on Wild’s list) about taking a large amount of counterfeit money to Mexico and purchasing a bunch of cattle for Dedrick. Mason also said that the Kid and Wilson had left Fort Sumner on November 15 with sixty head of stolen horses and that they planned to
return to the Pecos in two to three weeks. Mason thought the outlaws could be easily arrested at his house when they returned.

At the end of their meeting with Wild, Garrett started back for Roswell to organize his posse while Mason headed for White Oaks for a few days of snooping. The posse would be led by Garrett and a fellow deputy U.S. marshal, Bob Olinger (another Wild pick), and would be made up of Garrett’s Roswell neighbors. Wild arrived in Roswell by stagecoach on November 24, and Mason got there three days later. On Monday, November 29, Wild sent a rider with a message for Frank Stewart, the leader of the Texas Panhandle posse, which was reported to be at Puerto de Luna. Wild wanted Stewart to know what Garrett and Olinger planned to do. He wanted to use the various posses to catch both the counterfeiters and cattle thieves. Later that same day, Garrett asked his neighbors to meet him in Roswell after dark. Everything was ready for a bold raid on the outlaws.

At approximately 9:00
P.M
., Garrett and Olinger led their twenty-man posse out of town. Their first stop would be Bosque Grande and Dan Dedrick’s ranch, some thirty miles to the north. Garrett had been told that the Kid, Wilson, and any others with them were traveling on foot, and he suspected that they would go to Dedrick’s to get horses. The posse reached the Dedrick place at daybreak, but the Kid and Wilson were not there. Garrett did surprise and capture two men who had recently escaped from the Las Vegas jail. Taking along their two prisoners, the posse pushed on to Fort Sumner, where they hoped to finally corral the Kid and gang, but that was another disappointment. The place was dead quiet; not a single man they were hunting was then in the town. Here Garrett received a letter from Captain Lea, which told him for the first time what had happened at the Greathouse-Kuch place—the murder of Jimmy Carlyle and the Kid’s escape.

Garrett found a Fort Sumner resident who he believed could confirm if the Kid had been around or not. The man assured Garrett that
Billy had not yet returned but that Charlie Bowdre, Tom Folliard, and Tom Pickett were at the Yerby ranch near Las Cañaditas. Garrett allowed his men a short time for breakfast and then they started for the Yerby place. Garrett had a federal warrant for Bowdre in connection with the Bernstein killing at the Mescalero Agency. Maybe, he thought, he could salvage something of this raid yet.

The last thing Garrett wanted to do was alert the men at Yerby’s ranch to his approach, so over the next few miles he kept the posse off the main trail and stopped regularly on various high points to use his field glasses to scan the country. When they were eight miles from their destination, Garrett spotted a single horseman in the distance, riding toward Yerby’s. The rider was Tom Folliard, and Garrett quickly put together a plan to intercept the Kid’s best buddy. He knew of a pass through the hills where they had the best chance of surprising and capturing Folliard. What Garrett did not remember about the pass—actually, more of a ravine—was the overgrown weeds and brush, as well as loose rock, which made for extremely tough going. When Garrett and two of his men finally rode out of the ravine and onto the hard road, they were within three hundred yards of Folliard, and they scared the hell out of him. Folliard put the spurs to his mount and flailed away at the horse with his quirt. He then worked the lever of his Winchester like a jackhammer, firing back behind him at his three pursuers (the rest of the posse was still struggling in the ravine). Putting their horses into a hard gallop, Garrett and his men returned the fire, wounding Folliard’s horse in the thigh. But the ravine had taken its toll on Garrett’s horses, and, more significantly, Folliard’s horse was damn fast; outlaws generally try to steal the best horses. All Garrett could do was watch as Folliard quickly pulled away.

Folliard reached the Yerby place well ahead of the posse and warned the other members of the gang. They were long gone by the time Garrett and four of his men came in view of the ranch, but he thought there was a slight chance that the fugitives might be holed up
in the ranch house waiting to fight it out with the posse. With his blood still pumping from the chase, Garrett proposed that the five of them split up and charge the house from different directions. His men, not as gung ho as their leader, urged the sheriff-elect to wait until the rest of the posse came up. When the full posse did advance on the ranch house, they only encountered Bowdre’s fetching wife, the twenty-five-year-old Manuela, and a Hispanic servant woman. Both women tried their best to pretend they were surprised and terrorized.

When he returned to Fort Sumner, Garrett decided to take a stab at Los Portales, sixty-five miles southeast of Fort Sumner. A conspicuous rock formation rising fifteen feet above the surrounding plains, Los Portales was on a cattle trail running from Fort Sumner to the Texas Panhandle, a path the Kid liked to use for moving stolen stock. Its overhanging limestone ledge is believed to have been the inspiration for the formation’s name, because it resembled several porches,
portales
in Spanish. Two springs bubbled up from beneath the ledge, and a good-sized cave in the rocks provided adequate shelter from the elements. The Billy the Kid who was “always looking into the future” envisioned a stage line running by Los Portales one day, and when that day came, he hoped to operate a station there. The Billy the Kid of the present thought the remote springs were an excellent place to gather stolen horses and cattle and alter their brands.

At the very least, Garrett believed he could recover some sixty cattle the Kid was thought to be hiding at Los Portales. When the posse arrived, though, they located only two cows and calves and a yearling. Inside the cave, the posse found some musty flour, a little salt, and a pile of blankets. Garrett later learned that the Kid had moved the stolen stock to a location fifteen miles away. Los Portales, then, was another bust for Garrett and his posse. On their return journey, they stopped at a ranch co-owned by Thomas Wilcox and Manuel Brazil, twelve miles east of Fort Sumner. Billy and the gang also liked to hang out at the Wilcox-Brazil headquarters, even though
the owners found this rather exasperating. The posse had dinner in the ranch house, and over the meal Wilcox told Garrett that Charlie Bowdre was anxious to meet with the lawman. Bowdre wanted to make some kind of deal with the authorities. Garrett left instructions for Bowdre to meet him at 2:00
P.M
. the following day, December 9, where the road forked, two miles east of Fort Sumner. Bowdre, Garrett cautioned, should come unarmed.

Bowdre showed up, but he was not unarmed. Garrett saw the six-shooter on Bowdre’s hip and launched into the man: “Look here, you’ve betrayed my confidence.” The sheriff-elect maintained a stern tone throughout the exchange and showed Bowdre a letter from Captain Joseph C. Lea that promised Bowdre that if he gave up his old ways and dumped his thieving friends, an effort would be made to get him released on bail, after which he would have a chance to “redeem himself.” Bowdre was not completely happy with these terms, nor did he believe Lea or Garrett would come through for him. Still, he assured Garrett he would sever his relationship with the Kid and the others. Of course, Bowdre quickly added, he would have to feed the boys when they were at his ranch, but he would try not to shelter them. Garrett ended the meeting with a final warning: “I told him if he did not quit them or surrender, he would be pretty sure to get captured or killed, as we were after the gang and would sleep on their trail until we took them in, dead or alive.” For Charlie Bowdre, those last words of Garrett proved tragically prophetic.

MANY OF THE HORSES
ridden by Garrett’s men had become sick (not surprising considering the hard miles of snow and ice they had covered), so Garrett disbanded his posse at Fort Sumner, sending all but Barney Mason back to Roswell under the charge of Bob Olinger. Garrett still had his two Las Vegas prisoners to deal with at Fort Sumner, however. He had written the sheriff at Las Vegas about the prisoners
upon his first arrival at Sumner a little over a week earlier but received no reply, so he decided to get the prisoners there himself. It would be good to get into a real town and have a decent bath. Garrett hired a man with a wagon to haul the two wanted men.

Garrett’s small party started for Las Vegas on December 10. On the road, he received word that a sheriff’s posse sent from Las Vegas to retrieve the prisoners was then at Puerto de Luna, and Garrett left the main road to find them. He met the “posse” eight miles from the village, and it had picked up a good number of recruits there, so that it now numbered more than twenty wannabe heroes. Garrett was not impressed, describing the posse’s approach later as resembling a “whirlwind of lunatics,” the men boasting and puffing and causing their horses to prance and race about. One of the prisoners, John J. Webb, began giving serious thought to what this posse might do to him and his companion after Garrett and his men left. Arriving at Puerto de Luna, Webb offered Garrett $10 to stay with him until they reached Las Vegas. Garrett told Webb to put his money away; he would accompany the prisoners to Las Vegas.

As the prisoners were escorted to the blacksmith shop to get fitted with irons, Garrett walked into Padre Polaco’s store, sat down on the counter, and helped himself to a hard cracker. That’s when two village toughs, who had followed Garrett into the mercantile, decided to test the lawman. Juan Maes, twenty-seven years old, stepped up to Garrett and threw up his hands, saying, “Here I am, take me.”

“I don’t want you, man,” a dumbfounded Garrett exclaimed.

Maes turned and walked away, but it was far from over, for next Marino Leiva, the village’s “big bully” and a known thief, approached Garrett.

“No cabrón like Pat Garrett can take me,” Leiva said.

“I don’t want anything with you; I have no warrant to arrest you,” Garrett told him.

Failing to get a rise out of Garrett, the twenty-five-year-old Leiva
then walked out to the store’s porch, all the while running his mouth about Pat Garrett and bragging about himself. Garrett, unable to enjoy his cracker in peace, got up off the counter and followed Leiva outside.

“Go ’way from here,” Garrett ordered, and as he spoke, he gave Leiva a hard push, so hard it knocked the man to the ground.

Leiva sprang back up, drawing his six-shooter as he did so. When Garrett saw Leiva go for his pistol, the lawman drew his as well. Leiva got off two quick shots, both missing their mark. Garrett accidentally fired his six-shooter prematurely, the bullet kicking up the dirt at Leiva’s feet. But his second shot, rapidly following the first, struck the bully in the left shoulder, the slug passing completely through his body. Leiva turned and ran for his horse, firing back as he fled. Barney Mason, who had been outside the store, drew his pistol and chased after Leiva, getting off several shots before Leiva reached his or someone else’s horse and galloped away.

Garrett went back into the store, followed soon after by Mason. Garrett placed his Winchester within easy reach and continued eating his cracker. If anybody wanted to pester him again, he would be more than willing to accommodate. Soon, one of the deputies, Francisco Romero, walked in and told Garrett he was under arrest for shooting at Leiva. He ordered the sheriff-elect to turn over his weapons. An exasperated Garrett made it clear to Romero that while he had no intention of evading the law, there was no way he was going to turn over his arms, especially after one man from the town had just tried to kill him. Mason then picked up his own rifle.

“Shall I cut the son-of-a-bitch in two, Pat?” Mason barked.

Garrett told him to calm down; there was no need to shoot the deputy. At this point, Padre Polaco, a good friend of Garrett’s, began to talk some sense into Deputy Romero, who left the store. The next morning, Garrett visited the local
alcalde
(justice of the peace) about the arrest, and after a few questions, the alcalde told Garrett he was
free to go. Garrett was more than happy to oblige, departing Puerto de Luna that day with Mason, the posse, and their prisoners for Las Vegas.

They soon met up with yet five or six more possemen sent from Las Vegas. This last bunch, under the charge of the sheriff’s brother, Dolores Romero, also failed to impress Garrett, but there was nothing he could do about it. As they neared Anton Chico, Garrett received word that Frank Stewart and his Panhandle posse were in the town. He sent Mason to deliver a message for Stewart to meet him in Las Vegas. This caused the Las Vegas deputies to put up a fuss, because they thought of Mason as a member of the Kid’s gang (not an entirely wrongheaded assumption). Garrett waved Mason on and told the deputies that if they wanted to arrest the man, they could do it in Las Vegas.

When Garrett and Stewart met, they had a long confab about the Kid. Stewart’s plan was to look for stolen cattle and the gang in the White Oaks area. If unsuccessful there, he would cross over the mountains and follow the Rio Hondo east to Roswell and then ride up the Pecos Valley to Fort Sumner. Garrett considered that a waste of time. Not only that, Garret informed Stewart, he would be allowing the Kid an opportunity to escape to a safe refuge, likely out of the Territory. Garrett knew, probably from information obtained by Barney Mason when he went to deliver Garrett’s message to Stewart, that the Kid had recently been in Anton Chico. Garrett’s posse had just scoured the Kid’s stomping grounds of Fort Sumner, Las Cañaditas, and Los Portales, and come up empty-handed. But Garrett was confident the Kid had now moved back into the Fort Sumner area.

Garrett wanted to sneak into Sumner again, but he and Barney Mason could not bring the gang in alone. He needed men—Stewart’s men. By this time, the news of Governor Wallace’s reward proclamation had reached Las Vegas, and Garrett offered Stewart a share of the reward money if Stewart and his men would join him on an ex
pedition to Fort Sumner. Stewart agreed to run Garrett’s plan by his men (all except the offer of the reward money), but they would have to ride hard to overtake them, for they had likely already decamped for White Oaks.