He always tied down his holster bottom and as they said out west of the Mississippi, **A man with a tied-down gun doesn't do much arguing with his mouth." Balancing the walnut-butted Colt at his right side, a bowie laiife hung at the left and he reckoned to be better than fair with both of them. Certainly John Chisum thought Big Tag was better than average, for the Cattle King hired the big man as his ''segundo''; and Chisum never believed in wasting money. The peace of Blantyre City, Texas, shattered one afternoon as Big Tag and three other hard-case riders from Chisum's trail herd came tearing along Main Street. They rode fast, firing oflF their guns, churning up dust, and yelling like a bunch of drunken Comanches on their way to a wedding feast. Folks scattered out of their way like chickens ahead of a hunting coyote. Bringing their lathered horses to a halt before Lige Baxter s general store, the four hard-cases threw their reins over the hitching rail and tramped over the sidewalk to enter Baxter s establishment.
