The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-11-21

out dollar, and he married a right purity
gal, only sixteen, and he's older than"
A shrill whistle suddenly startled the
silence of the night. The passenger on
the box, almost without pause, leaned
over, and laying one hand on the lines,
with the other pointed pistol at the driv
ers head, and said, but no longer in the
accent of an uneducated person
''Hold up your hands, lieutenant =! At
the same instant man, with masked
face and holding gun, appeared in the
middle of the road, and stopped the horses.
The lieutenant turned pale, and stared
in amazement at the man by his side.
dts no use, said the elderly passenger,
sternly. "Weve got the drop on you Be
quick, or rll-"
"Well, said the lieutenant, defeatedly,
"you have got the drop on me, for a fact !"
And drawing long breath he slowly
raised his arms. But when his left elbow
was high as his shoulder, with his right
hand he pressed the trigger of the revol-
yer in his pocket.
There was muffied report, shrek,
and curse, followed by another report,
then another, and another, confused and
intermingled, the sharp crack of the rifle
ringing out over the duller noise of the
pistols. When the sounds ceased the
man in the road was crawling on his
hands and knees toward the shadow of
the oaks whence he had emerged. There
was no one on the box but tue lieutenant,
who was standing erect The next mo-
ment he pitched head first over the dash
board on to the off-horses back, and from
there rolled on to the road 1t needed
but this to goad the frightened animals
into stampede, and with the lines under
their heels, kicking and shying, they gal
loped out over the prairie.
1t is not easy for two horses to run away
with Concord coach, especially after
coming up Stony Creek grade. And so,
after the stage had numbered and lurched
at their heels for a halfmile or so, the
horses came down to trot, and then to a
walk, and finally stood still, and gazed
around, trembling, and ready for Il second
! fight. The moment that the vehicle
stopped, the veiled face of the lady pas
senger appeared at the door, and her terror
stricken voice cried, but almost inaudibly,
''My God what has happened?
Aroused from troubled sleep by the
report of pistol followed by a mans
shrek, more shots, curses and groans, she
had opened her eyes just in time to see a
heavy body fall over the wheel and on to
the ground. Then the stage had started
forward, the wheel going over the thing
on the ground with sickening jolt As
the stage bounded on she had been thrown
violently to and fro, clinging convulsively
to her baby, unable to realize what this
grizzly horror of the night might be.
With shaking hands she now unfastened
the door, and stepping out, found herself
alone in the awful silence and solitude of
the night.
Hark what was that? She tore her
veil from her head, and with it came her
hat. Great masses of black hair fell down
her shoulders, and white, young face
shone out in the moonlight, lovely even in
its terror. The noise was but the piping
of an insect, but it sounded like distant
shrek. Then the wind stirred the dry
buffalo grass, and it seemed to the panic
stricken woman as though it was the voices
of men pursuing. Her hair rose, and all
the blood in her body rallied in her heart.
She would have tainted had it not been
for the wailing of the dependent baby in
her arms What should she do? Her
first impulse was to run from what might
be behind her. But her feeble limbs failed
at the sight of the wide plains and obstruct,
ing sage-brush. If she could but get upon
the stage and drive. She went to the
horses und spoke to them. One of them
whinnied in reply, and that encouraged
her She crept between them, talking to
them all the time in trembling, beseeching
tones and got the lines out from beneath
their hoofs. Then holding the reins and
the baby in one arm, she scrambled on tc
the wheel and from thera to the drivers
seat. Everything was so big, the lines
the seat, the brake, her little feet did moi
reach the dashboard, but rested on some
sacks of barley that filled the forward boot
In this barley she made a nest for the baby
When she was ready to start it was evident
that she was not ignorant of driving. Sh,
held the lines and whip like the amateur
drivers of the New York coaching clubs
The horses had been restive during thes'
prolonged preparations, and they started
of freely at her timorous word.
And now the distraction of driving anc
the sense of motion diminished her frs
CHASTITY horror and replaced it with nervous
excitement She had no difficulty in find
ing the road, the horses took her back t.
it. When she reached it, however, sh
stopped to look around and determine
which way led to Pack City Itwould b.
frightful to make mistake and drive bacl
into that awful tragedy. She though
with shudder of what might be there
dead or living, in the noon-lit road or ii
the blackness of the bushes. She wondere,
what had become of the driver. Was i
: his body that she had seen fall from tn,