Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-01-16
THE MAN WITH A PLAN.
He Was Little, but His scheme Was . Greas
One.


From the New York World
There were five Of US in the stage and q sixth
man had a seat with the driver. There .
second lieutenant of cavalry, civil engineer
and the rest of US 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 fem
mime appearance and we hadn't been together
an hour when he confessed that the bare
thoughts OF the stage being held up made him
trembie 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 AZ We
had any show at al We could make II 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 that the point most
! likely to be selected by the hIghwaymen would
be at a rough SPOT in the road, just before it
reached certain hill, and we were about nye
miles from the spot. and darkness bad 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. u case
| il was stopped he would be in position to sight
the robbers and open fire at once.
We jumped on him at once Tor funk IL
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 con-
duct in very vigorous English In his soft
gentle way he replied:
.,Gentlemen YOU do me injustice. Please fus-
pend Judgment until you see how my plan
works. do assure you that firmly expect 70
kill q robber and save the stage.
We we're too Disguised TO argue with him,
and when he finally got out in accordance with
| his plan the army officer was fam TO make
| kick at him We couldn't tell whether he had
| bolted back down the road or was following
| on. but we got ali ready for hold-up. Every
one of us had q revolver in hand and every
one was on tho watch. and yet ii came about
before we knew il. The horses were still at q
! 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 q shotgun. 1t was
simply dead cinch on us, and we were not
over ten seconds realizing it We had just got
the order to hand up our guns and step out
when there was pop! pop! popl from out
side. The brigand at the right-hand window
cried out and fell; the at the le.t-band win
dow disappeared without a sound There were
three shots more from the front Of the stage,
and hal: a minute later. and before any Of u
had moved We heard the little man saying:
.GentleEen, il is all over and you can como
QUIT
What had bappened2 There was q dead
man on one side OF the coach and a eerior sly
wounded man ON the other, and the third
brigand had been driven away, probably his
by at least one bullet All thus had been done
by the little man and his little gun, according
to his plan. and what made il the worse Cor US
he didn appear 10 have done anything 10 feel
proud over. We tried TO square ourselvea
with him, but it couldnt be done. While he
seemed to forgive US We realized what his real
private opinion Of i've such chumps must -
and We got away FROM him at the FIRST stop.