Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1890-02-14

|
ing over my own when received blow
on the head from behind. 1t fell upon
the left side of my head and glanced to
the shoulder, but it knocked me over
i sideways in heap on the floor. l was
not stunned, but it came to me in a
second to ''play 'possum." Even while
falling I realized that it was plan to
rob the car, and | wondered who Good
hue had behind him. 1 rolled over on
my back, groaned two or three times,
| and then Strengthened out, and after a
minute heard voice say. "Come out,
Jim-he's settled"
1t was the voice of the man who had
struck me, but not the voice of Goodhue.
| heard second man come forward, and
then the plot was exposed. Neither was
Goodhue, and both were strangers.
''Guess you've done for him, Tom, !"
said the last conner as he stood over me.
Couldn't help it, Jim-he'd have
given us fight if hadn't. Now, then,
we've got things coopered In five
minutes we shall be at Blankville.
There's nothing to go off, but I'll open
the door. Sit here on the safe"
The whistle blew, the train pulled up,
and pretty soon we were at a standstill.
The robber opened the sliding door and
stood as cool as you please for two or
three minutes, and heard him reply to
the agent that there was nothing to 60
off. AS soon as the train pulled out he
shut the door and came over and said:
"Open the other door. Five miles
from here is the stretch of woods, and we
must be ready to dump the safes at the
word"
My revolver was under me, in its
holster, and I was helpless. The first
move made would have brought them
upon me, and they would have been GER
tain to make sure work of it this time. /
had to let them carry out their plan,
but was forming another. The stretch
of woods was two miles long, and be-
tween Blankville and the next stop was a
distance of eighteen miles. The two
small stations between were not on our
time card. The train sped along at
rate of forty miles an hour, and pretty
| soon out went the safes. Then the men
ran out at the end of the car, set the
brake, and pulled the bell cord. That
was what they did, but did not wait to
see or hear it. They were no sooner
clear of the car than I rose up
and took flying leap straight
out into the darkness after the
money. There was a long pile of
gravel on that side, and / struck into
this, turned over and over half
dozen times, and finally brought up in
potato patch ON the railroad strip, badly
shaken up, but not bone broken. The
engine was whistling for brakes mile
away, and as soon as 1 could free my
mouth and eyes of dirt started down the
track. found the first safe on the edge
of the ditch, and the second hundred
| feet away beside stump. I dragged
mine down to the paymaster's, then got
out my revolver and hid behind stump,
and pretty soon l heard the fellows COM
ing down the track. They had brought
the train almost to standstill, and then
signalcd it to go ahead and jumped.
They were hunting along the ditch as
they came, and waited until they were
within five rods before opened fire and
jumped up and shouted: "Here they
are, boys; shoot them downw
They didn't stand for a second, but
went off as fast as they could heel it, fol-
lowed by my bullets, and half an hour
later had the safes aboard of freight
train. An investigation proved that
Goodhue was blind drunk on that night.
He had accepted an offer to drink with
, a stranger, and had been piled with liquor
! until he fell down on the street. The
robbers must have known him well, and
have also been familiar with our way of
working. Who they were we never
knew.
In November, 1864, when began the
run between St. Louis and Chicago there
was scarcely week that something did
not occur to arouse my suspicious. The
heft of the money went South, but there
was always enough on either run to
tempt a robber to take desperate chances.
1 had middle-aged steady going man as
assistant, and it would have had to be a
sharp man who could get the better of
him. Now and then, when we were
carving big money for some army con-