The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-02-08
KILLED THE ROBBERS.
He Was Little, but His Scheme Was
Great One,
EAw York World


New York World.
There were FIVE of us in the stage and
sixth man had a seat with the driver. There
was a Second Lieutenant Of cavalry. civil
engineer and the rest of us were only COM
mon folks, who had been out in the hills
prospecting and were returning, broken in
hopes and busted" in pocket. The en-
gineer was little man, of feminine appear
auce, and we hadn't been together an hour
when he comics sed that the bare thoughts
of the stage being held up made him trem-
bic all over The officer was a quiet sort OF
chap. who seemed 10 have plenty Of nerve
aud though none of us had much to lose, we
by and by agreed that in case the stage was
stopped we would make fight for 1t. All
were new to a hold-up, but we decided that
If we had any show at all we could make 1t
hot for the road agents.
The little man at first agreed with our
plan as formed, bur later on he preached
one OF his own. The driver told us that the
point most likely to be selected by the high
waymen would be at rough SPOT IN the
read just before it reached certain hill,
and we were about five miles from the spot,
and darkness had fully descended when the
little man unf0lded his plan. When within
q mile Of the spot he was TO get ont and
follow the stage on foot 1t case it was
stopped he would be in position to sight the
IUDDtIS anu open IRE AT once.
We jumped on him at once for funk. 1t
was simply a scheme on his part to bolt and
save his dollars in case the agents appeared,
AID each one gave him his opinion Of such
conduct in very vigorous English. In his
soft gentle way he replied:
"Gentlemen, you DO me injustice Please
suspend judgment until You see how my
plan works. do assure you that l firmly
expect to kill q TObber and save the stage"
We were too disguised to argue with him,
and when lie finally got out in accordance
with his plan the army officer was lam TO
make a kick at him. We could not tell
whether he had bolted back down the road
or was following on, but we got all ready
for hOld-up. Every one OF us had a re-
vOYeT in hand, and every one was on the
watch, and yet ii came about before we
knew it, TIE horses were still ut walk
when a man appeared at either door Of the
stage and covered US. At the same moment
a third stopped the leaders and covered the
driver and passenger with shotgun. 1t
was simply a dead cinch on Us, and we
were not over ten seconds realizing it. We
had lust got the order TO hand up our guns
and step out when there was a pop. pop!
pop! from outside. The brigaud at the
right-hand window cried out and fell; the
one at the left-hand window disappeared
without a sound. There were three shots
more from the front Of the stage, and half a
minute later, and before any CT us had
moved. we heard the little man saying:
e Gentlemen, It's all over and you can
come OUT"
What had happened? There vas a dead
man on one side OF the coach and a seriously
wounded man on the other and the third
bTigand had been driven away, probably hit
by at least one bullet All this had been
done by the little man and his little gun,
according to his plan, and what made it the
worse for us he didn't appear to have done
anything to feel proud over. We tried to
square ourselves with him, but it couldn't
be done. While he seemed to forgive us, we
realized what his real private opinion of five
such chumps must be, and we got away
from him at the first stop.