Morning journal and courier., 1885-01-01

tain when suddenly the coach stopped. The curtains were up and I put my head out to inquire as to the halt and saw the colonel lying fiat on the ground with his hands in the air and close to the forward wheel of the coach. I supposed he had tainted and fell or had been thrown from his seat. I asked, with some alarm, what was the matter. inquired two or three times, but no one seemed inclined to talk, and that surprised me more and more. Finally, the colonel said in voice that convinced me he had not tainted, For Gods sake get off the coach quick and hold up your hands, It then be- gan to dawn upon us why the colonel had dropped so suddenly from the coach, and at once took in the situation.
 '"Thereupon we all sprang from the coach and were confronted with the muzzles of six Winchester rifles cooked in the hands of six masked men and their fingers on the triggers, and we were not slow in holding up our hands. The colonel as he lay on the ground not only held up both hands but one foot. These masked rufians were but few steps from us and they looked like giants, and the muzzles of their guns, which we could look into, seemed large enough for cannon balls. If we stepped about the guns moved to cover us. It was very silent entertainment. It was not sociable. Not a word was spoken. But it is wonderful what an amount of think ing person will do even under such un- favorable circumstances. I did not know ex-
 
 fourteen years service on the bench here I have sentenced several hundred fellows to the penitentiary, and as l stood there look ing into the muzzles of these guns I realized that the sentences had not been long enough, but I knew that any number them had ser we'd out their time I knew that my reputa- tion among these fellows was not good and there had been some threats. l thought per haps tribunal had been organized upon this lonely mountain summit fO trv the nnrt And then there were wife and child and father and sister and friends I thought of them all. But what could be done but stand and face the music. I realized what it meant wrong fellow. And then how mad I became. The idea of standing there with my hands high in the air at the command of thieving towards or murdering desperadoes, who held their rifles in my face. If I had had gun it seems to me I should have shot, whether or no, but suppose the least motion looking in that direction would have caused the death of us. But we poor innocents had no weap- with us but law books, and these will not kill even at short range, for they have been hurled at my head for years by word of mouth without much effect save that of mak- ing the hair thin and little gray.
 'How anxious we were to give up our money and watches and have the entertain ment over. It is amazing how very liberal we all became. We waited patiently to be killed, if that was in the programme{we had no bills showing the acts and scenes), and after waiting for what had seemed nine years, but in fact perhaps ten minutes, one of the masked fellows who seemed to be in command and who stood like a statue, said: Gent into the coach. Be quick about it. Don't look back and drive like hell. Some of us hesitated about. getting into the coach before we had been robbed. We thought we were entitled to have the regulation programme carried out in full. But motion from one of the maskers with his gun persuaded us to obey the order and we got on board and the driver put the horses to such speed that I began to think ble than those of driver attempting to obey such an order. A moment after we started we heard the report of eight or ten guns, crack craeki and we supposed a load of pas sengers by another conveyance had been fired sheriff of an adjoining county and another man in buggy were coming to court and the sheriff, who had 8 Winchester with him, dis covered one of our masked men behind a rock, and sprang from his buggy and demanded of him what he was doing there whereupon bullet went tearing through the sheriff'e coat from another direction, hut he stood his ground like a rock and returned the fire, and he thinks he killed one or two of his assailants.
 'We came on to town not more than six miles away, and the sheriff with a company of armed men immediately started in pur- suit of the rufhans, but have not yet captured them. If they succeed I shall have the plea ure of sending. them to the penitentiary."