Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1894-10-12

silk handkerchief-and that after II
had been returned.
John France laughed and went to
his room, while the sheriff smiled, as
he always smiled in danger and out,
and led the boy away. The crowd
looked puzzled.
He had my boy locked up, did hep"
shrieked Black Rosa, when the details
of this little episode were related to
her. The black face of the little Mex
lean woman seemed ablaze with indig-
nation. "He shall pay for this~
"Senora forgets the two silver dol
lars" tainted Robber Dan; ~ thought
the sonora might feel sorry that we
had planned to rob this fine Ameri-
cano. But it's all right now-is it,
dearest?" he added, mockingly.
Rob himl murder himr yelled
Black Rosa, and she staggered from
her chair, as if she would carry out her
own command, but fell on the floor In
q heap.
Dan and his pals lifted the woman
to a bed, and the leader remarked that
she would sleep till morning, and be
neither help nor hindrance. 1t had
been known for twenty -four hours that
the money-some ten thousand dollars
for the Bull Dimingo pay roll had
been received, but until announced by
Manager France it was not known
when that gentleman would start for
the mine.
At twelve o'clock that night four
men, heavily armed, rode out of Du-
range.
Two hours later the stage followed
them, with one occupant on the in
side and the driver alone ON the front
boot. Bloomer, the driver. might as
well have been unaccompanied SO far
as the inside occupant of the coach
was concerned. But he was used to
these lonely rides, and when passen-
ger preferred to be exclusive it simply
exhibited to Bloomer the poor taste of
the passenger. So he talked to his
horses and sang to them and passed
the lonely hours as comfortably as if
he had been surrounded by half
dozen passengers, and soon forgot the
fellow on the inside.
Coming to bend in the road, where
the ascent of the first steep mountain
is begun, Bloomer fell into reflective
mood and remarked to the nigh wheel
er that the fellow on the inside
might possibly rise to an apprecia-
ton O the society of stage driver
and his bosses If the muzzle of a
double-barreled shotgun should hap.
pen to appear at the window of the
coach"
, OF course Bloomer was not really ex-
pecting such a surprise for his unso,
. ciable passenger; so when the shotgun
, appeared, with three others, and &C.
companied by an order to throw
down them ribbons and throw up them
, hands" he was himself so completely
surprised that he obeyed without q
word of protest.
: If he was surprised at this sudden
appearance of road agents, he was
really dumfounded at what followed
5 For five minutes there was rattle OF
, shotguns as If miniature battle were
being fought. When it was all over
r two stage robbers were fatally
5 wounded and the other two surren
y dered to Sheriff Barney-and the mar
: of straw ON the inside was literally
: shot to pieces. And this is the way i
all happened, as Bloomer himself wa
I fond of telling 1t:
9 "You see, they didn't put NE on
r Never seen sheriff yet that thought
/ stage driver had nerve enough to play
S out his hand in game like that an
Y / don't know bat Teller would git ,
little bit ratified a.wonderin' how he
r a-goin' to come out at the end O. tn,
A game. It's purity ticklish bizness t,
: be a-sittin' on stage through tn,
h long, dark hours o. the night n
S a-guessin whether yer goin' ter driv,
: back er ride in box. But the way
v all happened was like this:
( "You see that kid what stole tn,
n handkerchief done that for blind
His OF woman she put him on. Sh
, writes note ter France N tell the kit
G ter drop it in his pocket N steal hi
I handkerchief, err anythin' else he coul'
t git his hands on, n then kinder lo;te
K 'roun SOS to git caught Well, sir
o that OF Black Rosa was a corker Sh
gives the whole snap away in the note
o m she tells France ter have the DO,
e put in jail, n that'd be tip for he
{ that he gets the note. Then she set
t up howl m throws the gang off, an
havin' bin drinkin' considerable an
q feelin' leetle bit skeered that he
h play wouldn't win, she was knocke'
a clean out-excited-' tainted on tn,
e dead square.
:. $50 France, wen he gifts the OF WON
$ ans note, he just quietly let's Barney in
h N Barney he tells him his system, n
IS they plays it to win. W'n France h
goes up to his room, Barney he goes n
n gifts his team n meets France at tn
T. back door n they goes out n lays 70
j. the gang. SONY one place on the roa
d where job O. stage Robin could b
d done n the robbers git away, an Bar
r. ney he knows the place, an that
u where they camps N waits for tn
/. gang-an' they gifts em dead to rights
d THAT inside passenger S wa
= knocked me cold. They puts the stag
agent onto the play, N he fixes up
ia straw man-w'atye calls dummy
70 he loads him into the stage SOS to foe
Al me n the road agents both.
st ~ reckon Black Rosa didn't kno,
t. how near she was a-callin' the tur
T. wen she prescribed death for gringo'
s. She didn't git the ones she was afte
lie in the fust place, but l reckon tn
death of her oil man n Pete Johnso
n suited her notions better, wen sh
a come to size up the job, fer they wa
d both gringos-one was American i