Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-02-17
THE MAN WITH A PLAN.
The Other Passengers Distrusted Him,
but His Scheme Morkeh.

The other Passengers Distrusted Him,
but His scheme Worked.
There were five of us in the stage, and
a sixth man had a seat with the driver.
There was a second lieutenant of cav
airy, a civil engineer, and the rest Of us
were only common folks who had been
out in the hills prospecting and were re-
turning broken in homes and .'busted"
i'll pocket. The engineer was a little
man of feminine appearance, and we
hadn't been together an hour when he
confessed that the bare thoughts of the
stage being held up made him tremble
all over. The officer was a quiet sort OF
! chap, who seemed to have plenty Of
nerve, and 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 it. All were new to a
| hold up, but we decided that if we had
any show at all we could make it hot
for the road agents.
The little man at 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 highwaymen would be at a rough
spot in the road, just before it reached a
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 to get out and follow the
stage ON foot. In case it was stopped he
] ~ s,,v 70 eIs "a
and open fire at once.
We jumped on him at once for funk
It was simply a scheme on his part to
bolt and save his dollars in case the
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. ] do assure you
that firmly expect to kill a robber AND
save the stage"
We were too Disguised to argue will
him, and when he finally got out IN ac
cordance with his plan, the army Officer
was fain to make kick at him. We
] COulUn ceASA
down the road or was following on, bu
we got all ready for a hold up. Every
one of us had a revolver in hand, anC
every one was on the watch, and yet i
came about before we knew it. Th'
horses were still at a walk when mai
appeared at either door of the stage am
, covered us.
, At the same moment third stoppe'
, the leaders and covered the driver am
! passenger with a shotgun. 1t was sim
= ply a dead cinch on us, and we were no
over ten seconds realizing it. We ha
lust got the order to hand up our gun
/ and step out when there was a pop! pol
pop! from outside. The brigand at tn
. right hand window cried out and fel
the one at the left hand window disaI
peared without sound. There WEI
- three shots more from the front Of tn
7 stage. and half a minute later, and b.
y, fore any Of US had moved, we heard ii
:, little man saying:
~ Gentlemen, it's all over, and you ca
~ come out.
~ What had happened? There was
= dead man on one side of the coach al
=, a seriously wounded man on the othe
d, and the third brigand had been drive
= away, probably hit by at least one br
- let. All this had been done by the lit
=, man and his little gun, according to
> plan, and what made it the worse for
he didn't appear to have done anythii
to feel proud over. We tried to squa
ne ourselves with him, but it couldn't
e. done. While he seemed to forgive I
or we realized what his real private opini
ed Of five such chumps must be, and '
al got away from him at the first stop.
ra New York World