Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-09
CULCH BILLS LAST HOLD.UP
Ran Up Against an Engineer Who Kept His
Wits About Him.
SMOOTH JOB WITH HOT WATER COCKS
Jet of scaiding water Spoiled the
Looks of the Guard and Per-
formed n Surgical Oper-
alton on william.

"Guch Bill, the once notorious train rob-
Der, had been raising Cain with the night
express OF the Air Line before l took the
run some years ago" remarked Steve Will
liams, retired western engineer, to New
York Sun correspondent but somehow after
was put on the train his hold-ups ceased
He had made several attempts at the game
though, and had succeeded in taking the
nerve out of most Of the engineers before he
stopped operations. None of them wanted
the train after Jake Leach got scared out,
but was young and looking for excitement
80 | said I'd try my hand on her After
Bits last appearance the company gave the
crew of the train strict orders to go armed
and be on the alert always, which had sort
of lock the barn -after-the -horse-is- stolen
twang to me. But as everything went along
swimmingly and no train robbers appeared
for a month or so we began to fall back into
the old rut Of things and leave our ordnance
departments home.
1.-The night express was generally made up
OF twelve or thirteen blind, or sealed, bag
gage and express cars with couple oil
coaches on the rear for the accommodation
OF the crew and the few passengers the tram
carried All the crew had to do In times
of peace was to sleep, as the train made only
a couple of stops on the division tor water
The way Gulch Bill and his pale usually
operated was to secrete themselves in some
way on the headend of the train at one OF
the water plugs and at an out OF the way
place they'd surprise the engineer and hre-
man, cut off the head car, which usually was
the through San Francisco car, and make the
engineer haul it down to some obscure spot
where they would crack it open ana take out
what express packages they thought valua-
BILE and make the engineer get the car BACK
to the train as best ne could.
"After I had been on the run about SIX
months and no robbers appeared, the older
men on the road began to get sorry at peins
so chicken hearted and made big kicks for
the train, as it was spap-few hours on
the road and big money. But the superln-
tendent said that as l had taken the tram IN
troublesome times when all the rest were
afraid, I could stay on there. and he'd stick
by me. One night as we were leaving st.
Loo Sam McCracken, my fireman, says TO
me:
"Felt Kinder Shaky.'
".It feels kinder like train robbers to
me tonight. Shouldn't wonder II we'd nave
a visit from Gulch Bill somewhere on the
the swag he got from his last haul by this
time
"'Ah, gowan. I says, he's far out of
this country by this time. l heard the other
day that he'd been seen in Chicago
".You just mark my words, says Sam,
hes Jest layin' low to throw us off the
scent. He'll show up soon.' "
SANS guess didn't come true that night,
but couple Of nights later I felt a Gravity
feeling down my spine few minutes after
we had pulled away from Stony Hollow
water plug, and turned to see three tough
locking customers drop over the coal boards
in the front end OF the tank and cover Sam
and me quicker'n a wink.
whoa there, Leach, or I'll make you
look like the top Of your mothers pepper
box said a not unpleasant voice that l knew
right away belonged to Gulch Bill.
Don't happen to be Leach I said,
sparring for time with him.
makes no difference. You just choke
off that steam and stop. I've been appointed
chaperone of this train. Halt, I say!'
There was nothing to do but halt. so !
brought her to gradually, and while doing
so Bill continued talking.
Now. Hank he said to one of his pals,
you just cover this gent here and his pard,
so they don't run away with us, and Gin
and III go cut the swag car off Now look
here, young feller' addressing me, don't
you try any fummydiddle business or your
family will be pricing funeral layouts to-
morrow. When you get the word to go
ahead you just teter right down to Hankins
swamp and stop there. Hank If he don't
obey orders or goes throwing any hot milk
into you, you just get your thirteen FOUNDER
into action. See? With that he and his
other chum dropped off the running board.
Touched on the watcrcock.
"All the while he had been shooting off his
mouth l had been forming a plan Of battle.
In those days the engines weren't fitted up
with the modern waterglass to let the engi-
Leer know how much water he carried in
his boiler Instead they were equipped with
water guages. These had four little stop
cocks in a vertical line on the back OF the
boiler. When you wanted to see how much
water you had in the boiler you just turned
one of those stoDcocks. When there was
enough water in the boiler the two lower
stoococks would throw hot water and the
two upper ones steam.
II figured out of the tail of my eye that
Bill's partner, Hank, stood Just so that
stream Of water from the lower stopcock
would catch him between the eyes. ] could
get my hand on the stopcock without Hanks
seeing me as / leaned up against the boiler.
So, when thought I had given Bill about
time enough to reach the end OF the first
express car l turned the lower stopcock on
full tilt and Hank caught 1t between the
eyes. At the same time / pulled the throttle
wide open and the train gave a lurch and
began to move.
"The hot water striking Hank so suddenly
in the face keeled him right over out Of
range of the jet OF hot water and with a
jump / landed on top OF him Then / heard
q screech like the cry OF dying man fol-
lowed by a couple OF pistol shots and some
cursing. We were moving quite rapidly now
and Sam and | bound Hank with some bell
rope after taking his pistols away from him.
When we got to the end OF the division and
the galvanizers were looking the train over
they found mans leg and lot of blood on
the front truck of the second express car
and the first train In after daylight brought
he rest OF the mans body, which was iden-
tilted as that OF Gulch Bill. My plan had
worked better than ] expected, for evidently
had pulled the throttle and started the
train Just az Gulch Bill was crawling under
10 cut off the head car, cutting him in two
and putting him out OF business forever |