“Hell. Damn it all. Can't stay here, can't leave my brother. It wasn't your fight, Sisson. Hell, I'm not even sure you ever got a shot off.”

Sisson glumly stared ahead. “I signed on with you boys. I guess I'll stay with you boys. If you're staying with John, I am, too.”

“What I'm telling you is you don't have to stay. There's no reason. It's all over for us. But it wasn't your fight. The Old Man never said nothing about dying for the family when he hired you. You're the hired man, is all. John and me, we're blood. Go on, get out of here. Find you a ranch with good horses and a nice señora and live out your days a free man.”

“I can't decide. You go on. I'll wait here. Time will decide. It always does.”

Tom stood up and began walking for the ridge. Halfway there, he put up his hands.

AFTERWORD

The Power brothers and Tom Sisson surrendered to the US Army's Third Squadron of the Twelfth Cavalry, headquartered at Hachita, New Mexico, on March 8, 1918, some twenty miles into Mexico. They had been on the run for twenty-eight days.

The army brought them back to Clifton, Arizona, in Greenlee County, just north of Graham County. John's eye was treated, then removed. Tom's eye healed, though it was permanently blind.

On May 20, 1918, Tom and John Power and Tom Sisson were found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder. The testimony of Marshal Frank Haynes was central to the state's case. He swore that the first shot had been fired from the cabin. The three were sentenced to natural life in prison at the Arizona State Penitentiary in Florence. As their train moved them from Clifton to Florence, people lined the tracks to see the three killers. Many of the people waved to them, and at every stop someone brought them food.

The gold mine in Kielberg Canyon was given to the widows of the slain officers. Clara McBride eventually bought out the others' share of the claim, and the McBride family operated the mine for the next three decades.

Tom Sisson died in Arizona State Prison in 1957. Tom and John Power were paroled in 1960. They both lived in Graham County, and both were reported seen up in the Galiuros where they had lived and mined. Tom Power died in 1970, and John died in 1976. They are buried with their father, sister, and grandmother in Klondyke, Arizona.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS