Jose Dominguez and Desidoria Ochoa

chunk 473 · paragraph 1839

ey had a large assortment of door keys in their possession — skeleton keys among the lot as well as pincers, nippers, screw drivers, and a motley collection of traps of various kinds. They were shown to be the very worst class of sneaking, low down, skulking house thieves. The property was found in their possession and the way they accounted for it was humorous. They claimed they met another Mexican on the railroad six miles this side of Whitewater at a bridge. They were entire strangers to each other. Being tired they all stopped to rest, the sun being quite hot. The Mexican stranger seemed to have fallen in love with a hat worn by one of the defendants — an ungainly looking sombrero. The stranger had the rifle, shot-gun, clothes and a lot of other tricks and bantered one of the defendants to play cards, offering to put up the rifle against the hat; each one by chance having three decks of cards. They played monte, and the defendants won. The stranger then put up the shot gun, the defend- ants won again. Next was put up the suit of clothes, the defendants won again. Finally the stranger staked all he had left to his new friends. The two defendants then went their way and the stranger came on toward Silver City, stripped of all his property. He was never seen after he parted from the defendants.