Texas Killers
Page 21
3. Told in: THE YSABEL KID.
4. “Floating outfit”: a group of four to six cowhands employed by a large ranch to work the more distant sections of the property. Taking food in a chuck wagon, or “greasy sack” on the back of a mule, they would be away from the ranch house for long periods. Because of General Jackson Baines “Ole Devil” Hardin’s prominence in the affairs of Texas, the OD Connected’s floating outfit were frequently sent to assist his friends who found themselves in trouble or endangered.
5. “Right bower”: second highest trump card in the game of euchre.
6. Mark’s main meetings with Miss Martha Jane Canary are told in: TROUBLED RANGE; THE WILDCATS and THE FORTUNE HUNTERS.
7. Books in which Martha Jane Canary takes a leading role are: COLD DECK, HOT LEAD; CALAMITY SPELLS TROUBLE; TROUBLE TRAIL; THE COW THIEVES; WHITE STALLION, RED MARE (co-starring the Ysabel Kid); THE BIG HUNT (in which Mark Counter makes a guest appearance); THE WHIP AND THE WAR LANCE (co-starring Belle Boyd).
8. How Mark’s romance with Belle Starr commenced, progressed and ended is recorded in “The Bounty On Belle Starr’s Scalp” episode of TROUBLED RANGE; RANGELAND HERCULES; the “The Lady Known As Belle” episode of THE HARD RIDERS and GUNS IN THE NIGHT. She also appears in HELL IN THE PALO DURO and GO BACK TO HELL, assisting Dusty Fog, the Ysabel Kid and Waco and in THE BAD BUNCH and THE QUEST FOR BOWIE’S BLADE.
9. Two of Mark’s great-grandchildren, Deputy Sheriff Bradford Counter and James Allenvale “Bunduki” Gunn, achieved considerable fame on their own behalf. Details of the former’s career as a peace officer are given in the Rockabye County series covering various aspects of modern law enforcement in Texas and the latter’s life story is recorded in the Bunduki series.
10. The first meeting is described in: GOODNIGHT’S DREAM and FROM HIDE AND HORN.
1. Pairaivo: first or favorite wife. As the case of the other Comanche names, this is a phonetic spelling.
2. Nemenuh: “The People,” the Comanches’ name for their nation. Members of the other Indian races with whom they came into contact called them the “Tshaoh,” the “Enemy People.”
3. Told in: COMANCHE.
4. An example of the Ysabel Kid’s ability to conceal his tracks is given in the “The Half Breed” episode of THE HALF BREED.
5. Some researchers claim that the actual designer of the knife was James Bowie’s eldest brother, Rezin Pleasant. It was made by the master cutler, James Black, of Arkansas. (A few authorities state it was manufactured by Jesse Cliffe, a white blacksmith employed on the Bowie family’s plantation in Rapides Parish Louisiana).
6. As all James Black’s, q.v., bowie knives were hand-made, there were variations in their dimensions. The specimen owned by the Ysabel Kid had a blade eleven and a half inches long, two and a half inches wide and a quarter of an inch thick at the guard. According to W. D. “Bo” Randall of Randall Made Knives, Orlando, Florida—a master cutler and authority on the subject—Bowie’s knife weighed forty three ounces, having a blade eleven inches long, two and a quarter inches wide and three-eighths of an inch thick. One thing they all had in common was a “clip” point, where the last few inches on the back of the blade joins the main cutting surface in a concave arc to become an extension of it.
7. What happened to James Bowie’s knife after his death during the final assault at the siege of the Alamo Mission, San Antonio de Bexar, Texas, on 6th March, 1836, is told in: GET URREA and THE QUEST FOR BOWIE’ S BLADE.
8. Told in: THE BLOODY BORDER and BACK TO THE BLOODY BORDER.
9. Told in: THE YSABEL KID.
10. Told in: GUN WIZARD.
11. Told in: SIDEWINDER.
12. Told in: HELL IN THE PALO DURO and GO BACK TO HELL.
1. How Waco repaid his obligation to Sunshine Sam Catlin, his adoptive father, is told in: WACO’S DEBT.
2. Told in: TRIGGER FAST.
3. Told in: THE MAKING OF A LAWMAN and THE TROUBLE BUSTERS.
4. Early examples of Waco’s ability as a peace officer are given in the “The Hired Butcher” episode of THE HARD RIDERS; the “A Tolerable Straight Shooting Gun” episode of THE FLOATING OUTFIT. (Corgi Books’ edition title); THE SMALL TEXAN and THE TOWN TAMERS.
5. Told in: SAGEBRUSH SLEUTH; ARIZONA RANGER and WACO RIDES IN.
6. Told in: THE DRIFTER and, by inference, DOC LEROY, MD.
7. Told in: HOUND DOG MAN.