e convicted in the courts. The Kid declined.
"There is no justice for me in the courts of this country now," said he.
"I've gone too far." And so he went back with his little gang of
outlaws, to meet a dramatic end, after further incidents in a singular
and blood-stained career.

The Lincoln County War now spread wider than even the boundaries of the
United States. A United States deputy, Wiederman, had been employed by
the father of the murdered J. H. Tunstall to take care of the Tunstall
estates and to secure some kind of British revenge for his murder.
Wiederman falsely persuaded Tunstall _pere_ that he had helped kill
Frank Baker and Billy Morton, and Tunstall _pere_ made him rich,
Wiederman going to England, where it was safer. The British legation
took up the matter of Tunstall's death, and the slow-moving governmental
wheels at Washington began to revolve. A United States indemnity was
paid for Tunstall's life.

Mrs. McSween, meantime, kept up her work in the local courts. Some time
after her husband's death, she employed a lawyer by the name of Chapman,
of Las Vegas, a one-armed man, to undertake the dangerous task of aiding
her in her work of revenge. By this time, most of the fighters were
disposed to lay down their arms. The whole society of the country had
been ruined by the war. Murphy & Co. had long ago mortgaged everything
they had, and a good many things which they did not have, _e. g._, some
of John Chisum's cattle, to Tom Catron, of Sante Fe. A big peace talk
was made in the town, and it was agreed that, as there was no longer any
advantage of a financial nature in keeping up the war, all parties
concerned might as well quit organized fighting, and engage in
individual pillage instead. Murphy & Co. were ruined. Murphy and McSween
were both dead. Chisum could be depended upon to pay some of the debts
to the warriors through stolen cattle, if not through signed checks.
Why, then, should good, game men go on killing each other for nothing?
This was the argument used.

[Illustration: 1. MRS. SATURNINO BACA (In early life) 2. MRS. SUSAN E.
BARBER 3. MRS. SATURNINO BACA (At sixty)
The "women in the case" in the Lincoln County War. Mrs. Susan E. Barber
was known as the "Cattle Queen of the West"]

In this conference there were, on the Murphy side, Jesse Evans, Jimmie
Dolan and Bill Campbell. On the other side were Billy the Kid, Tom
O'Folliard and the game Mexican, Salazar. Each of these men had a .45
Co