Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1881-09-22


like hands and sunken eyes, could not well be
disguised.
Half in scorn and half in pity, yet with a
brain awake to his danger, Jake drew rein aud
replied to his petitioner:
YES! Be lively and climb up here. I'm
behind time now. Where do you go?"
The old man answered, as he struggled to
a seat at the drivers side:
"Dickinson's."
A touch of the whip aud the horses were
again upon quick trot. Pool eyed his COM
panion as they rode onward, and almost un-
consciously dropped his hand to his boot top
and loosened the revolver carried there.
"Cold day for May" said the newcomer
shivering. "This yer winds sharp, too"
YES" responded the other, mentally won
dering where, about his ragged clothes, the
scoundrel at his side had concealed his weap-
ons, ut is cold but you'll find it warmer in
the Pass"
"Sure ?" said the old man, leering in Jake's
face.
"Sure!" responded that worthy, his blood
chilling with the covert hint in the word /;
and he urged his horses to yet greater speed.
The grade was sharply descending now,
and the road rocky and rough. A mile
more and the Pass would be reached. The
coach fairly swayed under its rapid motion.
Old Jim was forced to cling to the seat
with both hands in order to avoid being hurl-
ed to the ground. This was as Pool desired,
and he smiled grimly as he noticed the
others action.
"Yer-a-drivin'-purty-fast" screamed
the gray-haired desperate, the words fairly
Jerking from him as the coach sprang forward,
rocking from side to side. "Ye'll-hev-to-
hold-up-a -Pass-I-reckon!"
Jake set his teeth.
The granite walls of the Pass were now
lust before them, and the roadway, descending
and steep, ran into the shadow Of the coming
night and the gloom of the grave-like open
ing-a narrow path, but little wider than the
coach itself.
The roar Of the angry river far below
knelled never ending warning as 1t ran,
ragged and torn, among the jagged rocks,
and the death.like mist that crept upward
was damp and chilly.
81 won't hold up!" and with these words
the driver struck his horses, sharply, and,
snorting, they sprang forward into the Devils
Pass.
At the same instant. halfway through the
terrible gorge, standing motionless in the
centre of the roadway, beetling wall OF
rock upon the one hand, chasT of unknown
depth upon the other, was seen man!
Copper Tom was awaiting his quarry!
The old man at POOLS side uttered cry,
and loosening his grasp of the seat with one
hand, he would have thrust it into his breast;
but the other leaned suddenly toward him,
and pressing a revolver muzzle against his
forehead, whispered, hoarsely:
"Down with yer hands! Ifye stir agin
III kill ye! know ye, old Jim, an ye can't
catch Jake Pool nor his load this time! Down
with yer hands"
The sbuddering rascals hands fell at his
side; his face grew ashen hued, and bis eyes
started before him. They were rapidly ap-
preaching Copper Tom.
For an instant, as they drew near, that
worthy stood facing them then through the
fading light he saw the position of his pal,
upon whom he had depended-he saw the
stern, set face of the driver-he saw the furious
horses plunging down upon him-and with
terror.strcken cry he turned and fled!
Could he but reach the lower end of the
causeway he might yet escape-could ne
but find single spot to turn aside he would
be safe but it was not to be.
Nearer and nearer thundered the iron-shod
hoofs behind him, narrower and still narrow.
er grew the fatal road, until there rang a
certain horrible, despairing cry, mingled with
the frightened snort of the horses, dark
something bent down before the plunging
steeds rolled an instant before their grinding
feet, and then, spurned by the flying wheels,
was hurled, an undistinguished mass, into the
caIion beneath, and the coach sped on!
Half an hour later Jake Pool pulled into
the corral at Dickinson's ranch, and tumb'
ling half-fainting man from the seat at his
side into the arms of the astounded hostlers,
he said:
"Bind that man and give him to the sher-
if! It's old Jim, the road agent! His
pard's at the bottom of the gulf in the Pass
This one ought to stretch hemp when the off,
GERS get him, and I've driven my last run
from Gallatn There's too much risk about
the business for mel"
And Jake kept his word. He no longer
coaches it, but now keeps public house in
Helena itself, where, not long since, at his
own snug 6reside, he told me this thrilling
tale