OLD BILL WILLIAMS DOUBLE CROSSES THE NUCHE AND SEALS HIS FATE (Part 3) -or “Starvin’ Times in the La Garitas”

Miraculously surviving an excruciating ride from Cumbres Pass to El Pueblo without succumbing to blood poisoning and field amputation of his “shattered” arm, Old Bill Williams settled in for a winter of recovery and rehabilitation, undoubtably reliant on copious quantities of Taos Lightnin’. Unbeknownst to Old Bill, the harbinger of his impending doom had departed Saint Louis on October 21, 1848 i…