The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-08-21

.,.re Killed IL h"""'e '"" u"
.,ssd at the killing Tells the Story
vouches For It's Truth.
aro,king about ghosts, " said Colonel |
Snloqett Of Arizona, don you know
HAN seed ghost until went out TO
,.onv mighty nigh onter 40 years ago.
An1r nut much belief In spirit stories
MI coed a spirit with my own eyes,
Hns" a,or since that time | never was
apu 70 doubt man what says he's
acme seed ghost.
oonnrsor's a gulley some ten miles ont er
lilo ON skull creek, what a party of
pO .Dts ride once year always On the same
enh, flowing for short months, and thou
me- % the best citizens of AriZony have
s,n un coed the things, and | seed them my
s's and | never wants ter see nothing
ike them ag in.
M or was IN rough times, when every man
horrd ter carry q brace of Colts on his
We. W." and rifle across the holler of his
p nap, Men never thought nothing of crack
Loose at other men whenever they
' 'pe their dignity had been kinder in
| jered' ,.,.o go. ,,,.o.
| poroville the inbound stage had a mighty
tora time in getting ter the town, and
"sreral times il came in without the mail
socs. without the money box from the
Tncson bank ter the mine, and with the
driver pulling reins upon painting horse
Ash and couple of dead men hanging ter
.ho etraps inside the coach. The boys In
.oun M last got sorter riled over these
aids. and finally ledge Smith, who was
binder the Leading man of Bonneville, called
| business meeting of the boys ter discuss
tho WAYS and means of Kidding Bonneville
and IFS suburbs of the hold up fellers. A
nlan was mapped out, and every Teller in
the crowd was told ter shet his mouth and
90 ter work.
,The next trip of the coach about 90 of
the bovs. with their rifles, went out to
Skull creek and ambushed at the end of a
lone bridge which crossed the creek
| Here Il was that the stage was generally
| held mn. and row of crosses near the
| creek's bank marked whar different fallers
had passed in their checks what had rid
den i'm the stage WAL, right on time we
heard the stage como over the brow of the
hill going like HI. As she rolled outer
rho bridge there came n volley of shots,
| and six fellers on horseback came tearing
down the bridge after the stage Not
| Teller In our crowd moved muscle. Tho
| driver of the stage laid on the lash, and
the animals Jest ratified over tho boards
with them six fellers pounding hard after.
Jest before the stage reached tho ambush
the driver fell off of the box, dead as u
doornail. and the horses swerved and
went inter the creek, stage and passengers
and all. The gang on horseback refined in
as they reached the ambush, and then
there was a rattle of rifles and a chorus of
wells that made my heart sick, as right as
| knowed 1t was. The smoke cleared
away, and thar, right on the bridge, not
MORN 40 feet from whar l stood, lay six
dead bodies Of men and six dead bodies Of
horses. Not a spark left to tell the tale.
WAL we managed to get the stage out Of
the creek, but we had ter kill the horses
and pull from the stage one of the passen-
gers, poor little woman who was coming
ter join her husband at the town, and she
was dead, Jest little round hole in her
neck telling its story. We picked up the
| body of the driver and took it ter town
with the little woman, and that night tho
boys dug deep cut near the creek and
dumped the killed robbers into it and COW
cred them up for good.
Now comes the funny part of the story.
1t must have been year after the wiping
out of the gang that one of the boys from
| the town was out hunting near Skull
| creek. Dusk caught him right alongside
of the bridge before he knowed 1t, and
| then as he realized whar he was he took
| out for home OH long gallop Before he
bad time to go very far he heard rattle
| of wheels, and, looking back at the bridge,
| he saw the stagecoach coming across the
boards at an awful rate While he was
| pondering bout the stage, knowing 1t
WASH due until the next day, be saw SIX
men on horseback come arearing along
behind the stage raising Ned and shooting
ter beat the devil. WAL, he stood kinder
| spellbound in his tracks, not knowing
what ter do, although lie said ter me ait
erward that he wanted ter run mighty
bad, but was afcared that he might be
needed. Before the stage reached him he
saw the driver tumble to the bridge dead.
The horses and stage went into the creek,
and the next minute q cloud seemed 10
hide all the light, and when he saw ag IN
there wasn't blamed thing in sight save
the trees and the bridge and the creek.
Then he knowed what he had seen.
THE whole picture of the killing of the
robbers and the smashing of the stage came
inter his mind, and jest then he caught
sight Of the crosses OH the bank OF the
creek and the high mound under which
the robbers slept, and he suddenly seemed
to get enough of the locality. He turned
tail and ran inter town like a scary coyote
and he never went back. Jest as sure al
that date rolls around and anybody's near
the bridge the same thing happens jest
Ike 1t did i'm life. / seed it twice, and ii
hadn't er had some of the boys with me
I'd er left before IL ended.
It's awful ter see the sight. You car
hear the roll Of the wheels, heavy like the
rattle of smothered drum beating the
funeral march, and the pounding OF th'
animals hoofs upon the boards seems dead
ened, jest for the world like you hear them
long way off. and then, too, the shot'
come to your ear like you done heard then
In dream You see it all, and then q
cloud pears to hide everything, and whei
IL clears away thar amt thing In sign
cept yourselves. New Orleans Times
Democrat.