The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-08-16

had settled a little and the noise died
out, crept to the roadway and walked
along slowly for mile and half,
where found one of my partners with
about pound of lead in him. A little
further on | came upon the other one.
He wasn't hurt, but he was scared with
in an inch of his life. He d never been
on that road before, and as he said If
that was what called stopping an over
land he had had enough. He said
there was no stop to them. He hadn't
enlisted to fight q .man-of-war with
double gun deck and he wanted
me to understand it. Well, he came
pretty NEAR getting into trouble with
me, particularly when we came along
to where the other fellow was. but |
pacifed him after awhile by telling him
1t was all our fault We hadn't ought
to have separated. In those days there
were just as tough men inside of the
coach as any you could recruit for the
outside, and anybody who got away
with them had to be a good one.
"Just after the war I got information
to the effect that q number of the boys
were gong back to the States. and, as |
knew they had good deal of dust, |
made up my mind that | would have to
levy upon them. The night before
they started they d ank heavily, and
when they came to get aboard they
were all in helpless condition. l was
the first man to discover this peculiarly
of homeward bound passengers, and it
| stood me in n good many hundreds of
dollars. You could always get away
with stage a good deal easier during
the first ten or twelve hours of its trip
than at any other time. / made no
mistake as to the coach | am speaking
of. Finding out when it would start, I
took couple of friends and went out
on the road as far as we could get COM
fortably. Toward evening we heard
her a-coming, and we laid low. When
about near enough we jumped into the
road and covered the driver. He was
Little bit heavy, like the rest of them,
but he was smarter than they were.
When he saw us he reined RIGHT up, and
sat there perfectly still, while one OF my
men kept watch Of him and the other one
and myself interviewed the passengers.
They were thoroughly surprised, and
those who were not too drowsy to resist
were too sick. We got half dozen
bags of dust, some watches and few
bills, and then left them. There was a
treasure box aboard, which we pred
off and undertook to carry away with
us. 1t was mighty heavy, and we
didn't make much progress with it be-
fore nightfall. Feeling rather tired, we
went to sleep, never dreaming of
harm: but at daylight when We awoke
we heard racket IN the road, and
looking out from behind the shrubbery
we saw the passengers whom we had
robbed the evening before. They were
evidently on the war-path for us. | was
Just motioning to my men to keep still,
when one of them, clumsy cuSs, lost
his balance, and i'll trying to recover
himself made noise which attracted
the attention of the passengers. They
were after us in a minute. We had to
abandon the treasure box, and after
awhile they got so hot on our trail that
we had to drop the bags of dust, too.
They fired about dozen shots after us;
but when they found the plumber they
| seemed to conclude that it wasn't
worth while following us any further,
This little episode taught me another
important lesson in my business-that
when you get anything from drunken
man that you want to keep you must
get out of his reach before he sobers up.
That was the case in the overland days,
anyhow.
81 came upon stage once that had
awoman in it-a big boned, red-faced
woman. The other inmates showed
fight. and it took shot or two from my
party to keep them quiet, We had got
ust about all there was to be had, and
had ordered the driver to 90 ahead,
when the women threw herself out of
the vehicle, yelling; Pm one of YOU
No you don t. says |. i don know
you, and maybe you amt what you
SEEM She then went on to tell me
all about herself, and in half an hour
she made me believe she was q born
robber, who had been wishing all her
life to 90 into the highway business. l
rather liked her style, and in a day or
two | had cone to the conclusion that
she might be made useful in overhaul
ing stages. She and were alone on
the road one day, my two partners
having fallen behind us little, when
she got to chatting me about shooting
at mark. She said she could shoot
better than | could. Just for fun |
pinned a piece of paper on a tree and
let her take one of my pistols. She
fired at the mark, but didn't hit it.
Then | loaded her pistol again, and
handed it to her, and was Just going
to load miDe,. when she says Look
| here She was pointing the weapon