Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1900-08-16
MAN He MET IN COLORADO.
How. 1t Feels to BE for an Hour OF
30 URder the Eye of q Chap
with Gun.

mining expert, Ie4dtes IAS A>c" LII
Sun, II went rummaging around my
state looking for coal that was sup
posed to exist, and after long trip in
a wagon I was nearing the railroad sta
ton. AS I drove along the side of
wooded hill was suddenly brought up
with a round turn by man stepping
out of the bushes and sticking an ugly
looking gun straight at me. The man
told me to throw up my hands, and that
is what I did. The man told me to
move up past him till he told me to
stop. This also did, his gun covering
me all the time. Then he climbed into
the wagon and sat on box of mineral
specimens was taking back to Denver
with me. He never said word after he
told me to drive on when he had seated
himself, and didn't say anything at
first, but it wasn't long until couldn't
stand it, with him sitting there so dead
still behind me, so ventured to speak.
"'Excuse me, partner said l. as
pleasantly as I could, but would like
to say that, if it's all the same to you,
I wish you would sit here on the seat
with me. The blamed gun may go off,
and it wouldn't make it any pleasanter
for me to get bullet in the small OF the
back
"'Huh!' he grunted, are you armed?'
II told him was not, and he moved
up and sat down beside me, keeping his
gun ready for business. AS the wagon
topped the last rise in the road from
which he could see the station about
half mile away he looked hard at me.
"'I'm going down there with you,
young fellow he said, 'on little bust
ness, and if you say anything about me
to anybody or speak of me at all and
any disturbance comes up I'll shoot
you first off. Do you underestimate
HE was silent for the rest of the
way, and when we stopped and he got
out. he told me to remember, and 1
nodded. He strolled over onto the
platform, and I went to the stable with
my horses and came back to the sta
ton. I went out on the platform for
air. He had moved down tt the far end,
and I concluded that would move off
in the other direction towards water
tank noticed couple of hundred
yards up the track. About the time I
had my plans made handcar came
down with six section hands on it who
had seen me drive up to the station
with the man and his gun. They had
seen him loafing about the platform.
and informed me that to their notion
he was train robber, and they pro-
posed to run him in. They were en-
tirely unarmed, however, and they
knew what it meant to tackle fellow
with gun. so they began to calculate
among themselves how to get their
man.
1.-THE section hands moved down to
the platform, and as it was about noon,
the got out their dinner buckets and
began looking around for a good place
to spread their lunch. One of the hands
suggested that they might get him dead
to rights by spreading their lunch over
in his neighborhood, and perhaps, if
he had been hiding in the hills very
long, he was hungry enough to ask to
join them. The proposition was ac-
cepted at once, and the crowd went
over and opened up their buckets.
They asked me to go along, but wasn't
a bit hungry, though I was as hollow
inside as an empty barrel. My friend.
however, wasn't feeling that way, for
as soon as he saw the food spread out
temptingly before him he went right
up and asked if he couldn't have bite.
He ate like a man who hasn't eaten for
a long time, and he was soon so alb
sorbed in it that he forgot his caution,
and let go of his gun. In minute
section hand had it, and in another min
ute they piled on top of him, and while
some held him. others tied him and
then they stood him on his feet and
started him over to the platform to
wait for the train. I was good deal
easier in my mind when saw the ugly
cuss fixed so he couldn't train his gun
on me, but it did not add to my comfort
to have to listen to the fearful way in
which he cursed me for everything vile
and shameful in having betrayed him.
Who he was, or what he was. nobody
knew then, and I never did find out, but
I guess he was train .robber all right.
and got his dose, for never saw or
heard of him again, and I was on the
lookout for good many years, because
[ knew if we ever met there was going
to be shooting to KILL