Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-03-01
4 MESSENGERS RUSE.
How q Smart Fellow Utilized q Cowardly
Mongrel Cur.

How a Smart Fellow Utilized Cowardly
Mongrel Cur.
"When was in Dakota a few years ago."
said a citizen of Omaha some days ago to a
World man, Il was connected with a large
mining company. The camp was miles
away from any railroad At one time it be-
came necessary for some one to proceed to
the nearest railway station to receive a
large amount of money. Owing to the fact
that the camp was, like all Western mining
camps, infested with cutthroats and black
legs of every description, and that robberieS
and even murders were frequently COM
mitted on the trail, the job was considered a
ticklish one. 1 was selected as the man to
perform it. A mule was given to me and
set out well armed, and followed by mon
grel dog, the most cowardly and worthless
cur imaginable l never knew where he
came from. He somehow singled me out as
his friend and followed me wherever went.
In due time and without incident worthy Of
note arrived at my destination, received
the money, $4,000, in bills of high denomina-
ton and negotiable paper, mounted my mule
and turned my face homeward All went
well until night came on, but there was no
help for i'll had to push forward. But you
can imagine that wished myself at home
"Along toward midnight noticed the out
lines against the horizon of two horsemen
on the crest of a hill in front of me- Pull
ing up my mule. l waited When they drew
near leveled my Winchester and ordered
them to halt, which they promptly did.
They turned out to be two travellers, one q
mere boy. They related how they had been
robbed of all their valuables in lonely
place few hours earlier. Satisfied that
they were telling me the truth, and that
l had nothing to fear from them, l
apologized for stopping them, babe them
good night, and we proceeded on our re-
spective journeys, but the information they
had impaired made me more uneasy than
ever. l did not know what to do. There
was no hiding the valuable package on my
person or about my saddle where the rob-
bers would not quickly find it. Finally a
brilliant idea struck me- Why not tie the
package to the dogs collar! If ! was
stopped the cowardly dog would be sure to
desert me and return after the danger was
over. crawled from the mule, called up
the dog and securely tied the precious pack
age to his collar with some stout Irvine
CHANGED to have about me- You may be
sure that l took few extra turns with
the Irvine around the dogs neck to
guard against the collar coming off. Some
what relieved | proceeded on my way.
In one Of the most dreary spots of the
whole route, not far from where the two
travellers before mentioned were held up
/ was suddenly surrounded by three
men with drawn revolvers. There was
no use to show fight-the odds were
against me and l desired to live a
little while longer They made me dis
mount and hold up my hands l knew
every one of them and they knew me, call
ing me by name and demanding where the
money was that l had been sent after. l
assured them that l did not have it; that
another messenger had it and had taken
another trail; that l was simply blind to
fool road agents. That was too thin, they
said, and they proceeded to search me-
They then ripped up my saddle and even
closely examined the girth, but found moth
ing. After good deal of swearing, they
babe me get on my mule and make myself
scarce, an injunction which was not slow
in obeying. As had anticipated the dog
skulked away when l was so abruptly
brought to a halt but he soon caught up
with me when | was once more on the
move. | Immediately secured the package,
All Danger now Delng over, placed 1t IN my
inside pocket and in another hour reached
camp. You may think it strange that did
not inform on the would-be robbers, but
we never minded little incident like that
IN that country-it wasn't healthy TO. A
few nights afterward | met all three of the
road agents in saloon and quietly told
them how | had outwitted them. more
surprised and chagrined trio have never
seen. The leader requested me to go out
side with them and lick him to death for be-
ing such chump, but l declined for pru-
dental reasons. 1t seems that they got
wind of the object Of my trip and decided
to profit by it. Not finding the treasure on
me, they concluded that another messen-
ger was following with it. and so waited
until daylight, and then returned to town
and Disguised