The Elk Mountain pilot., 1881-08-18
THE MULE GUARD.

IL IL ZH OLE LII.
"Taint no Use trying ordinarily to
save anything but your lives when a
gang of road agents as knows their
business tackles a stage COACH" re-
marked Long Bill to a reporter. "a
party of men standing on the ground
with everything readN no ho,ses to
tend to, and nothing to do bl..ssight
their shooting irons and pleasantly
suggest to the driver to hand down the
cash box, has hieA1Ee in the game.
The driver and Co. For shot gun
messengers, as we call them in the
mountains, can't help being taken
more or less by surprise and l may
remark right here that until you have
been suddenly called upon to look
down the opening of a double -barreled
shotgun which has a road agent with
his hand on the trigger at the other
end, you have no idea how surprised
you are capable of being. | have
been thar. I have had seven shooter
pulled on me across a faro table
| have proved that the hilt of a dirk
can't go between my fibs | have
seen four aces beaten by royal flush !;
but l was never really surprised until
| looked down the muzzIe of q double
barreled shot gun in the hands of a
road agent. Why, my friend, the
mouth of the Sutro tunnel is like nail
hole in the Pacific hotel compared to
shot gun, from a certain point of
view. But this is all misdeal.
was going to tell you about the time l
did see couple of road agents left.
In '63 was plucky little stage driver
running out of Aurora who had been
stopped three times on the road, but
still driving, though after man is
stopped twice the company generally
lets him do something else for a liv-
ing, without intimating that he is any
friend Of the robbers.
"Well, this driver ! speak Of
utchsJakc, we called hitn-~had
worked for the company for long
time, and they knew him to be dead
square man. Jake felt dreadful bad
about having been stopped three
times and cleaned out each time. and
swore the shot gun messengers he
took along for guards were lot of
cowardly blowhards. The next time
Jake had consi gnment of bullion in
his box he begged hard not to have to
take along any messengers with him.
At that time you could almost count
on an attempt to rob every stage with
bullion on board. The Aurora bull
lion was just the kind the road agents
liked. 1t was run in small bars and Sc
rich in gold that it had the yellow
color, not like the heavy white brick
you see on the Comstock now. lake
declared solemnly he had scheme
8 TO fool dose tam roat agents : SO the
stage manager agreed not to send any
guards with him. When the time
came to hitch up for the trip to Wei
lington's, on the Carson road, Jake
went down to the stable and insisted
upon having the ugliest pair Of mules
that ever winked death with hind
leg put in as lead team. 'I'll show
how mule vas more smart as a guard,
said Jake confidently, as he whipped
out of town, with myself as the only
outside passenger. If we get call
tonight, Phil, shust you drop down
in te poot, cause me and dose mules
vas goin' to haf some fun I noticed
that Jake had shot gun cooked and
pointed straight ahead, and told HIM
if he was stopped and attempted to
raise the gun he would get shot sure.
He said he did not propose to make
such fool of himself, and when
asked him if he thought the robbers
would carefully place themselves in
line of the gun, which appeared to be
pointed at the lead mules ears, he
said: 'Nefer you mind, Phil; |
knows does mules. If we gets call,
you drop into de poot; dots ALL
Well, sure enough, we got call. We
were jogging over an easy bit of road,