Читать книгу Life of Pat F. Garrett and the Taming of the Border Outlaw - John Milton Scanland - Страница 5

CHAPTER III.
THE TRAGEDY ON THE LONELY ROAD.

Table of Contents

On the day before the tragedy, Carl Adamson hired a team and buggy and went to Garrett's ranch to bring him on the next day to Las Cruces; also, to notify Brazel to meet Garrett there, so as to arrange terms for the ranch. Adamson remained that night at Garrett’s. Next morning they started for Las Cruces in the buggy. Garrett placed in the buggy his Burgess, or “folding” rifle, which could be folded and carried in a holster, like a revolver, being snapped together in gun form when pulled from the holster. In placing it in the buggy Garrett remarked, according to the statement of Adamson, “I’ll place this between us, because we may have trouble before we get to town.” The gun was loaded with six shells of No. 8 bird shot They overtook Brazel. just beyond the settlement of Organ. He had a Winchester rifle strapped to his saddle; also, a revolver on his left side. Brazel rode along by the buggy, keeping his right side toward the buggy. Consequently, Garrett did not know that be also carried a revolver, but kept his eye on the Winchester. The terms of the lease were discussed and as the discussion grew warm, Adamson said he stopped the buggy to arrange the harness. He did not state whether it was merely disarranged, or broken. His statement is as follows:

CARL ADAMSON’S STATEMENT.

Adamson stated in an interview that he got out of the buggy to fix the harness, and that while standing beside the buggy, he heard Garrett say to Brazel, “I don’t give a—whether you sell all your goats and give up the lease, or not. I can get you off any way; I’ll put you out right now.” Garrett then leaped from the buggy, Adamson says, “but I don’t know whether he grabbed his gun as he did so, or whether he got his gun later—after Brazel had shot him and before he fell. I did not see as I was on the other side of the horse. I know that when Garrett fell he dropped his gun, and it had not been fired. It was a folding pump gun, and loaded with bird shot. I am sure that Garrett did not know that Brazel had a revolver. He saw Brazel’s Winchester strapped beside him on the horse, and had his eye on that. I am sure he thought he could cover Brazel with his shotgun before Brazel could draw the Winchester, and so he did not count on Brazel’s revolver, as he did not know that he had one. As Garrett fell to the ground he was dead. There were two bullet holes in his body; I am not positive whether the first shot hit him in the back of the head or the breast. I stepped from behind the rig just as he fell, and Brazel got off his horse and coolly said: ‘This is hell!’ He handed me his revolver, and got into the buggy. I put a lap robe over the corpse, and, hitching Brazel’s horse behind the buggy, we drove to Las Cruces, and Brazel surrendered, saying he killed Garrett in self defense.”