The matter was talked over and “Billy the Kid” agreed to switch over from the Murphy-Dolan faction. Tunstall at once put him under wages and told him to make his headquarters at their cow-camp on the Rio Feliz, which flowed into the Pecos from the west.
Now the “Kid” rode back to camp and told the dozen cowboys there of his new deal. They tried to persuade him of his mistake, but his mind was made up and couldn’t be changed.
In the argument, Baker abused the “Kid” for going back on his friends. This came very near starting a little war in that camp. The “Kid” made Baker back down when he offered to shoot it out with him on the square.
Before riding away on his faithful “Gray,” the “Kid” expressed regrets at having to fight against his chum Jesse Evans, in the future.
At the Rio Feliz cow camp, the “Kid” made friends with all the cowboys there, and with Tunstall and McSween, when he rode into Lincoln to have a good time at the Mexican “fandangos” (dances.)
A few “killings” took place on the Pecos river during the fall, but “Billy the Kid” was not in these fights.
In the early part of December, 1877, the “Kid” received a letter from his Mexican chum whom he had liberated from the jail in San Elizario, Texas, Melquiades Segura, asking that he meet him at their friend’s ranch across the Rio Grande river, in Old Mexico, on a matter of great importance.
Mounted on “Gray,” the “Kid” started. Meeting Segura, he found that all he wanted was to share a bag of Mexican gold with him.
While visiting Segura, a war started in San Elizario over the Guadalupe Salt Lakes, in El Paso County, Texas.
These Salt Lakes had supplied the natives along the Rio Grande river with free salt for more than a hundred years. An American by the name of Howard, had leased them from the State of Texas, and prohibited the people from taking salt from them.