Many small cattle owners were arrayed with the firm of Murphy and Dolan, who owned a large store in Lincoln, and were the owners of many cattle.
On John S. Chisum’s side were Alex A. McSween, a prominent lawyer of Lincoln—the County seat of Lincoln County—and a wealthy Englishman by the name of John S. Tunstall, who had only been in America a year.
McSween and Tunstall had formed a co-partnership in the cattle business, and had established a general trading store in Lincoln.
It was now the early spring of 1877. Jesse Evans tried to persuade “Billy the Kid” to join the Murphy-Dolan faction, but he argued that he first had to find Tom O’Keefe, dead or alive, as it was against his principles to desert a chum in time of danger.
For nearly a year a storm had been brewing between John Chisum and the smaller ranchmen. Chisum claimed all the range in the Pecos valley, from Fort Sumner to the Texas line, a distance of over two hundred miles.
Naturally there was much mavericking, in other words, stealing unbranded young animals from the Chisum bands of cattle, which ranged about twenty-five miles on each side of the Pecos river.
Chisum owned from forty to sixty thousand cattle on this “Jingle-bob” range. His cattle were marked with a long “Jingle-bob” hanging down from the dew-lap. In branding calves the Chisum cowboys would slash the dew-lap above the breast, leaving a chunk of hide and flesh hanging downward. When the wound healed the animal was well marked with a dangling “Jingle-bob.” Thus did the Chisum outfit get the name of the “Jingle-bobs.”
Well mounted and armed, “Billy the Kid” started in search of Tom O’Keefe. He was found at Las Cruces, three miles from La Mesilla, the County seat of Dona Ana County, New Mexico. It was a happy meeting between the two smooth-faced boys. Each had to relate his experience during and after the Indian trouble.
O’Keefe had gone back to the place where he had left the “Kid’s” mount and the pack mule. There he found the “Kid’s” horse shot dead, but no sign of the mule. His own pony ran away with the saddle, when he sprang from his back.
Now O’Keefe struck out afoot, towards the west, living on berries and such game as he could kill, finally landing in Las Cruces, where he swore off being the companion of a daring young outlaw.