The summer was spent by the “Kid” and his followers stealing cattle and horses.
In October they went to Roswell and stole 118 head of John Chisum’s fattest steers, and later sold them to Colorado beef buyers. The “Kid” claimed that Chisum owed him for fighting his battles during the Lincoln County war, and he was using this method to get his pay.
From now on, for the next year, the “Kid” and gang did a wholesale business in stealing cattle. Tom Cooper and his gang had joined issues with the “Kid” and party, and they established headquarters at the Portales Lake—a salty body of water at the foot of the Staked Plains, about seventy-five miles east of Fort Sumner.
Here a permanent camp was pitched against a cliff of rock, at a fresh water spring, and it afterward became noted as “Billy the Kid’s” cave. A rock wall had been built against the cliff to take in the spring, and afforded protection as a fort in case of a surprise from Indians or law-officers.
They had the whole country to themselves, as there were no inhabitants—only drifting bands of buffalo hunters.
Raids were made into the Texas Panhandle, the western line being a few miles east of their camp, and fat steers stolen from the “LX” and “LIT” cattle ranges on the Canadian river.
These herds of stolen steers were driven to Tularosa, in Dona Ana County, New Mexico, and turned over to Pat Cohglin, the “King of Tularosa,” who had a contract to furnish beef to the U. S. soldiers at Ft. Stanton. Cohglin had made a deal with “Billy the Kid” to buy all the steers he could steal in the Texas Panhandle, and deliver to him in Tularosa.
In January, 1880, the “Kid” added another notch on the handle of his pistol as a mankiller. He and a crowd of the Chisum cowboys were celebrating in Bob Hargroves’ saloon in Fort Sumner. A bad-man from Texas, by the name of Joe Grant, was filling his hide full of “Kill-me-quick” whiskey, in the Hargroves’ saloon.
Grant pulled a fine, ivory-handled Colt’s pistol from the scabbard of Cowboy Finan, putting his own pistol in place of it.
Here the “Kid” asked Grant to let him look at this beautiful, ivory-handled pistol. The request was granted. Then the “Kid” revolved the cylinder and saw there were two empty chambers. He let the hammer down so that the first two attempts to shoot would be failures.