St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1894-02-01

INTO Its victim arm before lHe
bullet swept it off, and the we'll
meaning miner had only precipitated
his partners fate The centipede is
as much like lightning as that.
We'll, there l stood, doubly held
up as it were 1t moved hand the
watchful desperate would fill me
with lead, if l moved a leg the CEN
tipede would fill me with poison.
| Slowly the terrible creature crept
up my leg, stopping now and then,
as if bordering over his next move
ment, and then climbing on again,
all the time leaving his itching, burn
ing track along my leg-someth1ng
in itself almost intolerable. did
not know how soon the irascible,
creeping devil would take umbrage
at something in his course and vent
his spite at it by soaking his long
rows of stingers into my flesh; and
| then the thought that the robbers
would soon be through their work
at the stage, and begin their search
for our personal belongings came
with added terrors. In going
through my clothes they would of
course disturb the centipede, and
| could see before me was certain
over. Yet kept on hoping that the
living Internal machine i'll my
trousers leg might take it into his
| head to retrace his steps and come
down to the ground again before
anything happened to disturbed it.
The centipede showed no DISPOSE
ton of that kind, but suddenly
changed his base by moving from
one leg to my trousers below the
hip. One whack of my fist would
have sma shed the centipede with his
back against my hip bone, and that
would have ended him. 1t would
| have ended me at the first time, for
there isn't any doubt but that the
man with the gun would have obey
| ed orders. So | was just about to
tell him quietly and without waste
| of words the unpleasant situation
l was in, and beg him to let me give
| the centipede its quietus while l had
| the chance, when the devilish thing
went back to my leg again, and re-
sumed his march.
1T crept along, turning when it
reached my waist, and moving
across my back toward the other
side. The nervous tension was ter
rible-a deadly creature liable at any
moment to bury its venomous claws
in my flesh, the muzzle of pistol
warning me that instant death
awaited my slightest move. The
centipede, although most deliberate
in it's movements, reached my other
hip by and by, and, to my JOY, start
ed down that leg. Slowly he let
| himself down, and so intense was
my suspense, in the hope that
he was on his way out by that
route, that did not feel the burning
track that he had now put pretty
much around me. He took his time,
and at last got down to my knee.
There he stopped.
My heart seemed throbbing in
| my very throat and almost suf-
| located me. A moment later 1t SEEM
ed to quit beating altogether, and it
was only by the most strenuous as
sertion of my will that l saved my
self from falling limp to the ground.
The centipede had turned and was
going up my leg again! l was al
most on the point of dropping my
hands that a bullet might relieve me
| from the misery of that trighttul
situation, when the capricious CEN
| tipede turned and started down
again, moving with more celebrity
than he had used since he began that
appalling trip. l don't know what
started him, but he kept up his run
all the rest of the way down my leg,
%lU r.
ground and scurried away. just
shut my eyes, gave one long breath,
and was on the point of relieving
my pent-up feelings with resound-
ing yell, regardless of consequences,
when the tough and watchlul
customer with the derringers ex-
claimed:
"I'u be good and damned, pardner,
if you hain't got more nerve than
that stage could hold! But say"
said he consolingly, eff the p'ison
cuss had dipped yarn, [ wouldn't a
let var suffer, I'd run ball into var
and let var out of it from the go
in -
THAT bloodthirsty wretch had
seen the centipede go up into my
trousers leg, had known all the time
what was suffering, and had been
cody watching to see what the out
come would be! For a year after
that l lived in the hope that l might
| run across that villain, and did.
1t was under different circumstances
than l had longed for, though, and be-
sides l didn't know it until it was
| too late to use the bullet on him that
/ had made VOW to use if ever l
had the chance. 1t was only the
next spring after that little affair of
the Pueblo stage that l, together with
six others, were taken out of a stage
five miles from Nevada City by three
masked robbers. The stage carried
! Wells. Fargo & Co.'S strong box be-