386 Reminiscences of 



had its barrels sawed off within six inches of the stock, 

 and could be well stowed away beneath his coat, 

 and this he kept loaded with buckshot. 



The body was lying in the railroad baggage-room, 

 where it was a star attraction of the day. An in- 

 quest had been held, and a court hearing, from which 

 Tucker had been immediately acquitted, as acting 

 in self-defence in the execution of his duty. The 

 region was less another desperate ruffian, and I think 

 the notches on Tucker's gun were well up to a dozen. 



Tucker was not left unmolested by the rough ele- 

 ment, whose ranks he had depleted, and received 

 several close calls from friends of the men he had 

 put away. He told me that, however cautious he 

 might be, he feared they would some day get the 

 drop on him, and soon after this conversation, having 

 one evening been shot at and slightly wounded, 

 he pulled out from Deming for Ohio, his native State. 

 He gave me what he considered valuable advice 

 to be followed in close encounters when armed with 

 his favorite weapon, a double-barrelled gun, sawed 

 off short and loaded with buckshot to shoot 

 always for the stomach, for, if it did not immediately 

 kill, it incapacitated the recipient from making 

 any further resistance, owing to the deathly sickness 

 which followed. I have never had an opportunity 

 yet of testing the system. 



Within four years after the advent of the rail- 

 road, Tucker had a list of seventy-odd names of bad 

 men who he said had been disposed of by sudden 

 and violent deaths in Grant County, in which Deming 

 was situated. 



I proceeded from Deming with Captain Slawson 



