Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-05-05

had never been very strong-had wasted
him to a shadow, and when at last he
knew he couldn't live very long he sent
for his mother and sisters to come tc
him,
ellis mother was too i'll herself to
travel and one of the sisters-a cripple
was obliged to remain with her, but
the elder sister went.
"She found him dying-dying in
prison. 1t was the first she had known
of his trouble and, naturally, she was
terribly shocked.
"He told her the true history of the
affair-that young Robinson, between
whom and himself had existed sort of
Damon and Pythias friendship, was the
guilty one; and how, when some of the
stockholders got wind of the shortage,
the two Robinsons and Tweedy, who
was a brother-in-law of old Robinson,
had conspired to shield the guilty man by
sacrificing an innocent one, who would
not defend himself. The confession
made by the dying man was not alto
gether voluntary one. His sister, who
had known nothing except that he was
innocent, caught hint of the truth from
him when he was raving in delirium-
the rest she made him tell her.
'After young Wilson's death, his sis
ter went quietly. to work to see what
could be done to prove her brothers in
nocence and to place the guilt were it
belonged, but soon found that nothing
could be proved. The Robinsons were
too strong for her.
"About this time Mrs. Wilson and her
younger daughter were obliged to go
south on account of ill health leaving the
elder daughter, who was studying medi-
cine, here in Chicago. Not long after this
the holdups on the different lines of the
l.. and A. began. For the first few times
there was only one road agent-a little
chap, but nervy one, who got talked
about by the papers good deal; but
pretty soon there were others, until a
band of about eight or nine had organ
lied under the little fellows leadership,
and they made life burden to the l..
and A. people.
''1t made no difference what precau-
tions the company took or how many
guards it employed; the road agents
were too smart, and the boldest kind of
holdups were successfully made-and,
by Jove! it busted the company's bust
ness. The l.. and A. wasn't heavy
concern, of course, but had always made
a good deal of money. The frequent
holdups on its lines, though, proved
settler. 1t wasn't long before nobody
would ship or travel over any of the L.
and A. companys lines unless actually
obliged to, and the company was kept
pretty busy settling the losses of its
customers. Then came the crash, and |
somehow people began to suspect that |
the Robinsons had not run things as |
they should have been handled, and the
investigated. Old Robin |
son died in disgrace shortly afterward. |
The young man took all he could lay his |
hands on and skipped, but was caught
at Sante Fe. He's where he should be-
at Canyon City. Tweedy got off on
about seven or eight months after
we were held up stageful of fellows,
myself, were stopped and re-
lieved one afternoon about ten miles |
from Millillen, on the old Muleshoe |
trail. The young fellow was one of the
knew him in spite of his
mask. There were only four of the road |
agents on this occasion.
''They pulled out, leaving us orders
not to touch our arms (Which they had |
stacked on the ground) for twenty min
utes, under penalty of getting shot. But |
one of our party was a devil-may y-care
chap, and no sooner were the bandits
gone than he walked right over to the
pile of guns and picked his out, remark
ing that he didn't believe there were
any road agents around just them And
there weren't.
"Well, the result of this fellows fool
hardness was that we concluded it
would be money in our pockets to get
on the trail of those four road agents, SO
we started after them, separating little
distance from each other. We followed
them all the afternoon, but couldn't find
a trace.
"You know how the old Muleshoe
trail is? Well, the driver had gone on,
agreeing to meet us on the other side of
the shoe-it is only three or four miles
81 was just about making up my mind
to join the other fellows, and had
stopped to think of the best way to cross
the creek, when l heard queer sound,
like woman sobbing. looked eau
tiously around, and there, within two
rods of me, was the young road agent,
crying as if his heart would break.
There was nobody else there, it was
plain to be seen, SO quietly sneaked up
and requested him to throw up his
hands.
"Did you ever hear woman scream
at the sight of a mouse? That's Just the
way this young fellow screamed when
he saw the muzzle of my gun-and l, as
soon as l saw the scared, fearful face
turned to mine, knew as well as / know
now that the famous bandit known as
Foxey was only woman.
''She seemed to trust me, somehow,
and pretty soon l had the whole story
from her. Then | sat down and talked
to her like brother; and the result was
that next day the road agents missed