In addition to the salary they paid Kirker…
source date: 1889
availability: public-domain

In addition to the salary they paid Kirker for his services, they gave him a premium of $50 for every Indian scalp he brought in; and as there are many harmless tame Indians in Mexico whose long black hair resembles the average Apache, some of his friends started a report that he occasionally killed some of these and palmed off their scalps for genuine Apaches. Although he could have done this without detection, if he had been so unscrupu- lous, still no person ever considered the report more than a good joke on Kirker, which he understood and seemed to enjoy as much as any- body.