No, it wasn't kindness that made it safe for Lefty to make it back across the border. Anyone who has been in country knows the rep of the Federales; kindness is not a word you hear used. It was a payoff. They didn't let Pancho slip away, now did they? They gunned him down in the desert....Or, it could be that Lefty ambushed him as a bounty hunter; that would also fit. Part of the beauty of the song is these little indeterminate pointsA