The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1891-01-30
A STAGE ADVENTURE.

ton. and OF the passengers one was a
lieutenant IN the regular army,
another a tourist in search of health,
= third ranehman, and the other two
were prospectors and miners. None
of ns had met each other previous to
the start. Those were perilous times,
and the first half hour was spent in
sizing each other up. I don't know To
what conclusion the others came, bur
looked over the four men and said to
myself:
The lieutenant ought TO fight in
case we are attacked, but he seems too
nervous to be gamey. The tourist is
Ill and has no sand, but the ranch-
man and prospectors can be depended
on.
At that time the coach which was not
stopped twice ont of FIVE trips was con-
sidered very lucky. In some few in
stances the robbers were driven of,
but IN most eases the passengers sub
nitted to being "held up" and were
glad TO get OF with nothing worse. 1
had with me over So, 900 in bank bills
and gold and was determined not to
part with that money without a fight.
The ranchman had $4,000 and the
miner about 5000, rs was afterward
tight We had Just forded the Merced
river, and had come to a lonely stretch
Of road, when the ranchman pulled his
revolver and examined the caps. 1t
was not yet restored to the holster
when we heard d shout. the report of
3 pistol. and the stage came TO a full
stop / reached for my pistol. as did
the miner. knowing that robbers were
at hand, but before mine was out the
lieutenant flung his arms around me
and cried out:
For Gods sake make no move or
we shall all be murderedl Let them
take all we haveis
At the same time the tourist flung
himself upon the miner, and neither
Of us had a weapon out when a rob
ber showed himself at either door.
The ranchman was ready however,
and he killed the man on his side He
would have also killed the other, but
his revolver failed on the second shot.
and the robber pashed his revolver in
and fred with the mnzzle pressed
against the poor fellows beart. A
Mird robher then came up, and we
were covered from either door and
Med upon to surrender. The iig
$ sP and we climbed out, deliver
Ag our pistols butt foremost as we left
the stage There were four of rs and
only two robbers. but when man has
the drop on you and means business it's
no use TO kick. We were placed in a
row, and while one of the fellows
kept rs covered the other went through
each man In turn. The lieutenant
shelled out watch and $40, the tour
ist watch and 500, and they cot
from the other two of us the sums haye
previously named. I had my bank
bills in my bootlegs, but as we were
forced to strip to our shirts, they found
every last dollar. While we were
dressing the body of the ranchman was
pulled from the coach and stripped
and robbed.
/ have no doubt that the robbers
meant to shoot every one of us after
securing the plunder in order to avenge
the death of their comrade, but the
unusually large booty put them in
good spirits and they underwent a
change of heart. The one who
searched us stepped over the dead
body dozen times without seeming
to care whether it was a log or a man.
When finally through with us he bent
over the body and began robbing it,
saying to his companion:
Bill won't have any more use for
and we might as well take his
dollars along. Poor Bill We shan't
never play poker together again"
When they were ready to go they
cut the harness so that the stage would
be detained a couple of hours, broke up
or carried of every firearm. and
drank to our health from a flask the
kazEist lad with him. They made off
for the foothills to the east, having so
little care for as that neither of them
looked back. was mad and no mis-
take, and the miner gave utterance to
his feelings in curses which almost
cracked the stones around us. We
had been robbed of our last dollar.
and, with the money, our every pros
pect- The tourist could get more at
Stockton, and the lieutenant was out
only few dollars anyway. / was not
yet dressed when he began to put on
airs over us, claiming that if we had
not been so hasty he would have man.
aged the affair to the defeat of the
robbers. This added to nv anger,
and sailed in and pounded him until
he yelled for mercy
It was just sunset when the stage
was ready to 60 on, but there were two
Of us who did not propose to go that
way. We were unarmed, but de-
and while the stage lum-
bered of down the rough road we
found club apiece and set out on the
trail of the robbers. Luckily for US,
the miner had been long in the coun-
try and seen good deal of the hunters
life We therefore had no difficulty
N following the trail until darkness
came on. The fellows made directly
FOR the foothills, and we had no doubt
that they had some sort of a cave or i
out there. They took mat
5ers so coolly that they could not have
been great way ahead of US when
darkness fell. | was then for resting
until daylight, but the miner urged |
hat we should push on. From the
of the country he felt GER
ain that a rayine or rift would be |
sound not far away. We were then
the foothills and the true
mountain, in narrow valley, and a
ull moon had come up. Without this |
ight we could not have made our way,
IS the ground was much broken and |
powders lay thickly scattered about.
We went ahead cautiously up this |
Falley for about mile, and of a sudden /
rift opened to the left, and. the glare
# campfire greeted our eyes. 1t /
vas not over two hundred feet away,
ind after a minute we made cut the |
orms of the two men as they seemed /
o be preparing supper. We had /
ound them. but what oSitP They had /