About two weeks later Wooten was hunting and he heard a shot ring out on
the air, and decided he would go in the direction of the shot and see
what was up. He got on his stomach with his rifle fixed so he could
shoot any hostile intruder and stealth-fully crawled up to within a few
yards of where he had discovered a small camp smoke. There he espied
Espinosa in company with a small twelve-year-old boy, ripping the hind
quarter out of a beef steer he had killed. Wooten kept watching and
crawling nearer--Espinosa unsuspicious of the watch of the old trapper,
prepared to cook his supper and had beef already over the fire cooking,
answering the many questions of the hungry lad near him, when Wooten,
getting a sight on him, sent out a shot that ended the life of the
fearless and revengeful Mexican bandit, the terror of the Mexican and
Colorado border, Espinosa.

The boy hid under a log, but after being assured by Wooten that he would
not be harmed came out and answered Uncle Dick Wooten's inquiries. The
child said he was a nephew of Espinosa. When asked what the notches on
the gun of the bandit denoted, he told him they denoted the number of
men killed by his uncle, for whose life he had paid the forfeit by his
own at the hands of Dick Wooten, the famous trapper of the Rocky
mountains and keeper of the toll-gate of the Santa Fe Trail.

Uncle Dick, a kind-hearted old fogie, in spite of the fact that he had
just killed a bandit, gently pacified the little lad and finished
cooking the supper. When it was all ready they both ate ravenously of
the beef, bread and coffee; then Uncle Dick cut off the head of Espinosa
and placed it in a gunny sack, took the rifle of the beheaded robber and
placed the little boy on his horse behind him and started for the
toll-gate; from there they went to Denver and collected the ransom.
Besides the $1000 reward for the potentate of the Rocky mountains which