Arizona silver belt., 1894-08-18
sMlTH WAs A sAp MAI.
And He Had Learned One Game of Which
 He Gould Boast.

He Gould Boast.
 But speaking Of train robberies, put in the colonel, reminds m5 of man l met when 1 was in command of Fort D. A. Russell at Cheyenne. He was an ex- press messenger named Smith. and his run was on what they called ont there the high line of the B. and NJ. railroad Smith ain't much of man to look at, but he was great in action, syouH agree.
 I'd heard of Smith before I met him. He'd killed two men down in western Kansas, and they were saying around Cheyenne that he was bad. So was curious to get him 10 tell me the story, and after awhile he did
 He used to have run on the Santa Fe down where it crossed into Colorado. All the messengers, you know, carried guns in those days-they do yet, for that matter-but Smith understood the use of six shooter better than some of his mates Things had been so smooth On his run for so long that he got bit care less at last and used to leave the door of his car unlocked so that the brakemen could come in and talk with him when ever they liked without his having to go to the end of the car to unlock the door,
 Smith had one game, though, which was all his own. He told me that he had practiced it good deal so that be could shoot within fraction of a second after hearing any one say, Putup your hands, All the train men on his run knew that. You know those fellows are great in skylarking, and Smith had warned them never to try 10 play that joke on him, because, he said, the first man who came into his car and took him hnawares with that remark would be likely to die.
 "One day he was sitting behind hiB little square iron safe checking of his money packages, He had the safe in a corner of the car facing one end. He al- ways sat with his back against the front end of the car. The front door was al- ways barred. When he raised the lid of the little trunklike safe the messengers used then, he always put his two big six shooters on the corners of the safe in front of the lid. Any one approaching him from the rear end of the car couldn't see the guns, but they were ready for in- stant use.
 "Well, on this day I'm telling you about, as he was checking off the pack ages, he heard the car door open and some one come in. He took it for grant ed that the visitor was the brakeman whom he was expecting, and without looking up went on with his work. He checked two or three more packages and was almost finished when he heard the sharp command, Put up your handsP
 "He looked up on the instant and saw two men, not in the least disguised, cov- ering him with six shooters His own hands were behind the lid of his safe. All right, boys he said, Don't shoot. They're up.'
 "They went up, that was true, but as they came over the lid of the safe there was six shooter in each one. Both six shooters cracked the instant their muzzles came above the safe lid, and both bullets killed. The robbers fired, but they didn't pull until after they had been Lit, and ther bullets went wild
 'It was all done so quickly that there was no outcry or noise, and when the brakeman went into the car few min utes aft arward he found Smith washing ID the blood from the floor. The dead men were on blanket in corner. That was how Smith got his reputation for be- ing bad "-New York Sun,