Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1892-03-09
THE MAN WITH A PLAN.
lilo WAS Little. But Ills scheme Wa. n
Great one.

ifo Was Little. But His scheme Was n
Grcnt One.
There were five of us in the stage,
and sixth man had n seat with the
driver. There was second lieutenant
of cavalry, n civil engineer and the
rest of rs were only common folks who
had been out in the hills prospecting.
and were returning broken in hopes
and busted" in pocket The engineer
was "a little man OF feminine appear
ance, and we hadn't been together an
hour when he confessed that the bare
thoughts OF the stage being held up made
him tremblc all over. The officer was
quiet sort of chap. who .seemed To
have plenty OF nerve, and Cough none
OF us had much To- lose, we by and by
agreed that in case the stage was stop,
ped we would fight for IT, All were
new to n holdup, but we decided that
II we had any show at oil we could
make IL hot for the road agents.
The little man mt first agreed with
our plan as formed, but later on he
preached one of his own The driver
told Us that the point most likely to be
selected by the highway would be
at . rough spot in the road, just before
il reached certain hill, and we were
about five miles from the spot, and
darkness had fully descended when the
little man unfolded his plan. When
within mile OF the spot he was seen
10 got out aud follow the stage on foot
In case IL was stopped he would be In
position 10 sight the robbers and open
fire at once.
We jumped on him NJ once for a
funk. II was simply scheme on his
part 90 bolt and save his dollars In case
tho agents appeared, and 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 j do assure you
that / firmly expect 10 kill a robber
and save the stage"
We were too Disguised 60 argue with
him. and when he finally got out in nc.
cordance with his plan the army officer
was fain TO make a kick at him. We
couldn't tell whether he had bolted back
down the road or was following on,
but we all got ready for "a hold-up. Nv.
cry one OF us had revolver in hand.
and every ono Of Us was on the watch.
and yet IL came about before we knew
H. The horses were still at walk
when a man appeared at either door Of
the stage and covered us At the same
moment n third stopped the leaders and
covered the driver and passenger with
a shotgun. IL was simply dead cinch
On rs, and we were not over ten sec
onds realizing IT, We had Just got the
order 20 hand up our guns and step out
when there was pop pOpi pop!
from outside. The brigand al the right
hand window cried out and fell; the one
at tho lsft hand window disappeared
without sound There were three
shots more FROM she front OF the stage,
aud half = minute later. and before any
Of us had moved, We heard the linle
psu ssyingl
'Gontlsmsn, Tvs all over and you can
coms out"
What had happened? There was a
dead maa on one side Of the cOscb. znd
= seriously Wousdsd man % the other.
aud tks third brigsD< had been driven
away. probably bit ~ ~ least one bul.
lea All lhis had hesn done by ths IL.
Sic nso aud bic ltNs gun. according to
his plan, aud what m4ds 10 the verse
for us hs didDt appsar 10 have done
anything to feel proud over. We tried
10 square ourselves With him. but IA
cOuldnt be done While be seemed 10
forgive uA We realized what his real
private opinion Of Eve such chumps
must be, and We got away from him al
Che hrst stop. N Y. World.