Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1880-09-25
4 Stage Drivers Story.

y
bury to Littleton, a distance of forty
two miles, and as had to await the ar
rival of two or three coaches, and did
not start until after dinner, | very Otter
had o good distance to drive after dark
It was in the dead of winter, and thu
season had boon rough one. A grea,
deal of snow had fallen, and the drifts
were plenty and deep. The mail that
carried was not due at Littleton by
contract until one o'clock in the morn
ing, but that winter the postmaster was
obliged to sit up q little later than that
hour for me.
One day in January when ! drove up
with my mail at Danbury, the post
master called me into his Office.
'.Pete," said he, with an important,
serious look, there's some pretty heavy
money packages in that bag" and ne
pointed to it as he spoke. He said the
money was from Boston to some land
agents near the Canada line. Then he
asked me if / had any passengers who
were going through to Littleton
told him ! did not know. "Bnt sup.
pose have not" says I.
why" says he, "the agent of the
lower route came in to-day, and he said
there " ere two suspicious looking char.
acters on the stage that came i'll last
night, and he suspects that they had AN
eye on this mail, so it will stand you in
hand to he little careful this evening"
He said the agent had described one
of them as short, thick SGT fellow.
about forty years of age, with long hair,
and thick, heavy clump of beard under
his chin, bnt none on the side of the
face. He did not know anything about
the other. l told him guessed there
wasn't much danger.
"Oh, no, not if you have got passeng.
.ers all tho way through, bnt / only told
yon this 80 that you might look out for
your mail, and also look out sharp
when you change horses
] answered that ! should do so. and
then took the bag under my arm and
left the office. slowed the mail away
mnder my seat a little more carefully
than usual, placing it so could keep
my feet against it, but beyond that l
did not feel any concern. 1t was past
one when we started, and had four
passengers, two Of whom rode only to
my stopping place. reached Gowan's
Mill at dark, when we stopped for sup
per, and where my other two passen-
gers concluded to stop for the night.
AboCt six o'clock in the evening l left
Gowan'S Mill alone, having two horses
and pung
| had seventeen miles to go, and a
hard seventeen miles it was, too. The
night was quite clear, but the wind was
sharp and cold, the loose snow 1yiug in
every difeosion while the drifts were
deep and closely packed. It was slow
and tedious work, aud my horses soon
became legweary and FESTIVE. At the
distance Of & miles l cane to settle
ment called Bulls Corner, where | took
fresh horses. Id been two hours going
that distance. AS was going to
start, a man came up and asked if was
going through to Littleton. ! told him
| should 60 through if the thing could
possibly be done. He said he was anx-
ions TO go, and as he had no baggage, |
told him to jump in, and make himself
comfortable as possible. | was gather
ing up my lines when the hostler came
up and asked me if ! knew one of my
horses had cut himself badly. l jumped
ont and found that one of the animals
had got deep cork cut on the off foot.
l gave sncll directions as l considered
necessary, and was about to tnrn away
when the hostler remarked that he
thought I came alone. ! told him |
did.
Then where did you get that passeu-
ger!" said he.
"He just got in," l answered.
"Got in from where ?"
81 don't know"
well, now" said the hostler, that's
kind of curious. There amt been no
such man at the house, and know
there amt been none at the neighbors."
Let's have look at his face said
|. We can get that much at any rate.
Do you 60 back with me, and when I
get into the pung just hold your lantern
80 that the light will shine into his
face
He did as wished, and as l stepped
into the pung | got fair views of such
portions of my passengers face as were