Oh, the black-haired stranger rode into town, his guns were tied down. He rode a tall, black stallion fourteen hands high, with a shaggy mane the week he died. He rode up to the ol' Dust Saloon "Where's Lightnin' Sam?" "He's in the back room" You better run, Sam, you better run he's got 21 notches on his gun. "There's a time to run, a time to stand, I can't beat him, I'll die like a man, die like a man, die like a man." Oh, the sun was high and the wells were dry and the hungry birds looked down from the sky. And the rattlesnake was comin' out of that red hot desert ground Was a holiday in hell, that main Texas town. The outlaw calls from the street, and the fastest gun alive, Sam I've got you be Then I heard a shotgun rolling, the lightning sound comes through the saloon doors He said "I had to get my silver shells, that thing wasn't a man, that was a devil right out of hell." He reached up and he took his badge off his chest He said "Son, you're the sheriff now, you're awful young, I hope you stand the test cause I'm gonna hit the trail, I can't keep demons and devils locked in no jail" So Old Sam he headed out across the desert. He didn't have no water for his canteen, leading that sack of bones he called a horse. Two and a half years later during the rainy season we had water in the well, I though I'd try to cross the desert, maybe I'd find me a gal. I was about three days and a half out in that barren waste when I saw something laying by a mesquite bush. I looked and it was Sam's old shotgun. Nearby lay his old saddle, what the varmints hadn't eaten Well I says "I'll be darned, Sam didn't kill that devil, he tricked him into trying to cross that desert with no water for his canteen leading that sack of bones he called a horse." And it seemed that I could hear a voice "He died like a man, he died like a man, he died like a man"