Evening star., 1899-03-04
HIS PLAN DIDN'T WORK

81 read in The Star not long ago." said a
gentleman connected with the geological
| survey, and who does good deal OF tray
cling for that organization, ian amusing
| account given by commercial traveller of
| how all of the pretty plans he had made
| to guide his conduct in case of a hotel con-
fagration petered out when he found him
self actually mixed up in the Baldwin
House fire in San Francisco, and how he
| went to pieces just like a majority of peo-
pie without any prearranged plans do I'M
der similar circumstances. He drew
moral the difference between promise
and performance from the story, and 1t
set me to thinking of rather a parallel ex-
perience l had a few years ago. Ny ex-
perience, however, wasn't fire. 1t was
hold-up. 1t was the same, however, in the
fact that / had for years thought out just
exactly what I'd do in case ever happened
to be on a train that was held up, and the
fine, consecutive way with which l didn't
think of one of these plans when the pinch
came was humiliating. l needn't deScant
upon what 1 intended to do. 1 meant to
throw my hands up. of course, when or
dered, but l had whole lot of careful lit
tie details figured out for saving myself
from the necessity of giving up my valu-
abies that l firmly intended to work at the
first opportunity.
I'm 1889 ] was travelling on a sleeper on
the Union Pacific, bound from Omaha for
Denver 1t was a pleasant ride, in the
middle of autumn. and there hadn't been a
hold-up of any sort on the L. p. for two
or three years at the time I'm speaking of.
Three of us, in the sleeper got together in
the smoking compartment and played
pinochle for a dollar corner after the
train had been out from Omaha for twenty
hours or so, and all in all 1t was about as
pleasant journey as can be imagined up
to certain point. At a little place called
Mirage, In Lincoln county, Col the train
stopped to permit the boiler to be refilled.
and our car got a passenger there. We
noticed him when he stood within the door
of the compartment and idly watched the
game for awhile He was tall, gaunt
commonplace-looking man, except that he
had pair of peculiarly black, deep-set,
Shifty eyes. He wore new and very bad
ly-fitting suit of store clothes, blue fan
mel shirt with black string tie, and a
black slouch hat. I didn't take In all of
these details of his get-up at first for none
of us paid any particular attention to him
as he stood leaning against the jamb of the
door, After while, though. one of the
fellows asked him if he cared to sit in to
make up a party of four, and he smiled In
a slow kind of way and said he didnt mind
Then 1 sized him up, and figured That ne
had about the makeup of a cook of
rounding-up outfit, or freighter going
home to see his folks. I noticed, too. every
time I looked up from my cards, that he
was looking pretty hard at a stud 1 wore
then, and again at ring with gem in
it that my friend Kountz had picked out
for me
HE wasn't much of pinochle player and
one or the Other or the original tnree OF us
got his silver dollar with considerable regu-
larity at the end of each game. After
while 1 asked one Of my friends to give
me bill for ten silver dollars 1 had &C
cumulated. When he pulled out a wad as
big as the business end of a base ball bat
to accommodate me, wondered little at
the sharp glances the shifty-eyed chap
fl ON the Colorado gravel plains directed at
the bundle of money.
1.-THE train made slow speed, and it was
a couple of hours after we left Mirage be-
fore the whistle announced Hugo, the next
step. When the engine gave the single
toot, the shifty-eyed man threw his hand
face downward on the table, put his hands
in his lap, and leaned back with a sort of
sigh.
Seems to me I amt havin' no sort O
luck at all in this game, he said, with an
aggrieved drawl that was almost pathetic.
Hain't had nary trump in my hand wuth
anythin' for more'n dozen rounds. But
they amt no use kickin' is there, fellers?
Come to think of it, I've got hand right
here now that ought to be good in any
company. What do you fellers think Of
I'VE didn't do any thinking at ALL but our
six arms went into the air just as if they
We're on the same marionette string. The
new mans 'hand'-rather, his pair Of
'hands'-would, as he said have taken the
pot in any company His edge on the
situation consisted of a pair of black-bar
relied army revolvers that he suddenly
jerked out of his lap with his last ques-
ton. He held one of them steadily leveled on
a spot right between my two eyes, and thu
other he slowly waved from side to side
as to cover my two friends with his other
gun. Well. 1 didn't do any analyzng of
the situation, any more than as If / had
never thought of what l was going TO do IN
case / was held up. / did just what 1t was
up to me to do, and that was to point to
the zenith with the ten fingers I was born
with
'' Kind of an ornery way of doin a job,
fellers, l know said the shifty-eyed man
with the bead on us, but you all look
sporty enough not to be particular how the
things done. so longs you've got to give
up all o your belongins in tn, way O. cash
and gilt junk, anyhow. That's about right.
hey?
We'll. I've told enough to prove my case
of the fiunks, and to exhibit the difference
between promise and performance. The
fellow persuaded the three of us to lay our
vicious looking guns on the card table, and
then our valuables. He got my stud and
ring that he had been so earnestly sizing
up, and couple of hundreds in cash. He
did as well cut of the other two, and then
he just hoped off the train at Hugo. l
haven't figured out any future line of
duct since that time.