Los Angeles herald., 1892-02-18
THE MAN WITH A PLAN.


The Other Passengers Distrusted Him,
but His Scheme Worked.
There were five of us in the stage, and
q sixth man had seat with the driver.
There was a second lieutenant of cav
airy, 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"
in 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 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 broached
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 a mile of the
spot he was to get out and follow the
stage on foot. 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 funk
1t was simply 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 robber and
save the stage"
We were too disgusted to argue with
him, and when he finally got out in &C
cordance with his plan, the army officer
was fain to make kick at him. We
down the road or was following on, but
we got all ready for hold up. Every
one of us had 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 when q man
appeared at either door of the stage and
covered US.
- + 1,o H. -
the leaders and covered the driver and
passenger with shotgun. 1t was sim
ply 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!
pop! from outside. The brigand at the
right hand window cried out and fell;
the one at the left hand window disap-
peared without sound. There were
three shots more from the front of the
stage, and half a minute later, and be-
fore 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 a
dead man on one side of the coach and
a seriously wounded man on the other,
and the third brigand had been driven
away, probably hit by at least one bull
let. 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
New York World.