The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1892-04-14
FolLEo The srAoE-RoBBERs.
He Was Little, but His Scheme Was
a Great One.

He Was Little, but His Scheme Was
a Great One.
There were five of us in the stage,
and a sixth man had seat with the
driver. There was Second Iieuten.
nant OF cavalry, civil engineer, and
the rest of us were only common folks
who had been out in the hills pros
pecting and were returning broken in
hopes and "busted" in pocket, says a
writer in the New York World. The
engineer was q little man of feminine
appearance, and we hadn't been to-
gether an hour when he confessed that
the bare thoughts OF the stage being
held up made him tremble all over.
The officer was 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
q fight for it. All were new to 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 III the road just be-
fore 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 a mile of the spot he was
to get out and follow the stage on
loot. In case it was stopped he would
! be in position to sight the robbers and
open fire at once.
/ We Jumped on him at once for q
funk. 1t was simply a scheme on his
/ part to bolt and save his dollars in
case the agents appeared, and each
one gave 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 a robber
and save the stage"
We were too disguised to argue with
him, and when hetinally got out in &C
cordance with his plan the army
officer was fain to make a kick ut
him. We couldn't tell whether he had
| bolted back down the road or was
| following on, but we got all ready for
II hold-up. Every one OF us had a
revolver in hand, and every one was
on the watch, and yet it came about
before we knew it. The horses were
still at walk VIII en- man appeared at
either door OF the stage and covered us.
At the same moment q third stopped
the leaders and covered the driver
and passenger with a 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
a popl pop! pop! from outside. The
brigand 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
q minute later, and before any of us
had moved, we heard the little man
saying:
Gentlemen, it's all over, and you
can come out!"
What had happened? There was q
dead man on one side of the coach
and seriously wounded man on the
other, and the third brigand had been
driven away, probably hit by at least
one bullet. All this had been done by
the little man and his little gun, &C.
cording to his plan, and what made it
the worse for us he didn't appear to
have done anythingto 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.