The Red Cloud chief., 1880-10-07
A STAGE.DRIyER'S STORY,


North American.
A STAGE.DRIyER'S STORY.
FOURTEEN years ago / drove from
Danbury to Littleton, a distance Of
forty-two miles, and as | had % await
the arrival of two or three coachers,
and / did not start until after dinner. |
very often had a good distance TO drive
after dark. 1t was in the dead of win
ter, and the season had been a rough
one. A great 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 morning. butthat winterthe Post
master was obliged TO sit up q little la
ter than that hour for me.
One day in January, when drove up
with my mail at Danbury, the Postma<-
ter called me into his Office.
''Pcte," said he, with an important,
serious look. there's some pretty heavy
money packages in that bag" and he
pointed 10 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 10 Littleton? told
him | did not know. ''But suppose |
have not" saws 1.
Why" said he, 'the agent Of the
lower route came i'm to-day, and he
said that there were two suspicious
characters on the stage that came in
last night, and he suspects that they
have an eye on this mail, SO it will stand
you in hand TO be 4 little careful this
evening"
He said the agent had described one
of them as a short, thick set fellow,
about forty years of age, with long
hair, and a thick, heavy clump of
beard under his chin, but none on the
side of his face. / did not know any
thing about the other. | told him |
guessed there wasn't much danger.
"Oh, no, not if you have got pas
sengers all the way through, but | only
told you this S 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 mali away
under my seat a little more carefully
iiiskfi dNtsA btHAAiBe ~ w u W. http
my feet against it, but beyond that |
did not feel any concern. 1t was past
one when we started, and / had four
passengers, two of whom rode only to
my first stopping place. | reached
Gowan's Mills at dark, when we
stopped for supper, and where my
other two passengers concluded TO stop
for the night.
About SIX o'clock in the evening l
left Gowan's Mills alone. having two
horses and a pung.
L had seventeen miles TO 90, and a
hard seventeen il was, too. The night
was quite clear but the wind was sharp
and cold, the loose snow flying i'm every
direction, while the drifts were deep and
closely packed. 1t was slow, tedious
work, aud my horses soon became leg
weary and FESTIVE. At the distance of
six miles | came to a little settlement
called Bulls Corner, where l took
fresh horses. I'd been two hours
going that distance. As | was going
TO start a man came up and asked if 1
was going through to Littleton. i told
him l should go through if the thing
could possibly be done. He said he was
anxious to 90, and rs he had no bag
gage, L told him to jump in. and make
himself as comfortable as possible. l
was gathering up the lines when the
hostler came up and asked me if |
knew that one of my horses had cut him.
self badly. L jumped out and found
that one of the animals had got a deep
cork on the ~offfoot. / gave such direc-
lions a. considered necessary, and was
about TO turn away when the hostler
remarked that he thought that | came
alone. told him | did.
Then where did youget that passen-
ger?" said he.
HE just got ill.," / answered.
SCOT 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 one at any of
the neighbours"
Lets have a look at his face" said
/. 1--WE a get that much at any
rate. Do you 90 back with me, and
when L get into the pung just hold
your lantern so that the light will shine
into his face"
He did as l wished, and. as | stepped
into the pung, 1 got a fair view of
such portions of my passengers face
as were not muflied up. saw a short.
thick frame. full, hard features, and /
could almost see that there was 4 heavy
beard under the chin. L thought of
the man whom the Postmaster had de-
scribed to me; but | did not think seri-
ously upon it until | had started. Per-
haps [ had gone half a mile when |
noticed the mail bag wasn't in its place
under my feet.
'Hellor" says 1, holding up my
horses a little. where's my mail?"
My passenger sat on a seat behind
me, and | turned toward him.
Here is a bag Of some kind that
slipped back under my feet" he said.
giving it a kick, as though he would
shove it forward.
Just atthis moment my horses lumber
ed into a deep snow drift, and L was
forced to get out and tread down the
snow in front of them, and lead them
through it.
This took me all of fifteen minutes;
aukL~hen 1 got in again l pulled the
mail bag forward and got my feet upon
n. As Il was doing this l saw the man
taking something from his lap. beneath
the buffalo. and put it into his breast
pocket. This + thought was a pistol.
I had caught a CLEAN of a barrel in the
tarlight, and when 1 had time to re-
eect / knew / could not be mistaken.
About this time / began to think
,omewhat seriously. From what l had
heard and seen, L soon made up my
that the individual behind me not only
.nted to rob me of my mail, but was
-epared to rob me of my life. If / re-
lid him he would shoot me, and
xrhaps he meant to perform that
1saectable operation at any rate. While
2~as po1defing the horses plunged
seea snow drift, and / was again
ss~pd to get out and tread down the
- before them. l asked my pas