with them at last became unbearable, and when, after threatening two
actors with his revolver and frightening the women to the verge of
hysterics, he passed onward into another car, a hurried council of war
was held in the coach be had just vacated, and every man who had a
pistol got it in readiness, with the understanding that if he returned,
he was to be shot down at the first aggressive movement. But that phase
of trouble was averted, for, as it happened, he remained in the car
ahead until, at dusk, the train rolled into Albuquerque.

Here the proprietor of the Armijo House was at the station with his
hackman awaiting the train's arrival. He called out the name of his
house at the door of one car, and then turning to the hackman said: "You
take care of the passengers in this car, and I will go to the next."

These inoffensive words caught the ear of the tough man from the East,
who was pushing his way to the car platform. He drew his pistol and
started for the nearest man on the station platform, shouting:

"You'll take care of us, will you? I'll show you smart fellows out here
that you are not able to take care of me."

He flourished his revolver as he spoke and, just as his feet struck the
second step of the car, he fired, the ball passing over the head of the
man on the station platform. The sound of his pistol was quickly
followed by two loud reports, and the tough man fell forward upon the
platform dead. The man at whom he had apparently fired had drawn his
revolver and shot him twice through the heart.

A crowd gathered as the train rolled on, leaving the tough man where he
had fallen. Of course the man who killed him, a gambler of the town, was