The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-09-29
The COwardIyGuard

When I was in Colorado away back
in the sixties | one morning left Dem
yer for the south. 1t was the day OF
road agents, and l confess l felt some
what nervous. / was told by the Wells
Fargo people that the coach would be
guarded by one of their men, Dick |
steele, whom they considered worth |
half dozen ordinary men. This sat |
isfied me, for from the time l entered |
the state 1 had heard OF the brave |
deeds of this same Dick Steele.
When we were about 20 start and
Steele was pointed out to me l was
surprised. He was little fellow about
! FIVE feet five inches, and ] couldn't
see how he could terrify even n single
robber. and there were often several In
the parties who robbed coaches. How
ever, he had an eye which, like his
name, was steel, and a cold looking
steel at that. and ] put him down for
one Of those men I'm whom nerve takes
the place of muscle.
made the trip out and back with
steele. and there was no occasion for
the wells-Fargo man to show his met
tie. When / left Denver for Cheyenne
to take the Union Pacific railroad for
the cast Steele was again the guard.
This time when we were midway on
our journey we heard the cry ahead,
Hold up your handsw and the coach
came to n stop. A man came and stood
/. on one side of the coach, holding us all
b covered with brace of revolvers,
while two others on the other side
opened the stage door, threw down the
steps and called to us to alight. Steele
; was in the middle seat and next person
to the open door. We all expected him
to suddenly bristle with weapons and
, XIII the two men before they knew
| what hurt them. Instead Of that he
mmbled out with his hands In the air
as nimbly as young fawu.
Seeing that we had no protection
| from this vaunted hero, we all got out
and stood i'm line while the road agents
\ relieved us Of everything about us Of
any value. Evidently they had never
seen Steele before, for they treated
\ him just like the rest of us. thought
perhaps he might stoop and pull pair
of revolvers from his boots: but, al
Z though he had no especial watching,
\ he did not make the slightest move
ment When the robbers were through
with MS they ordered US back into the
coach and told the driver to move on.
~ As soon as we were free from the
" robbers there was a great outburs
a against Steele. you're pretty guard!
"Where did you get your reputation
a for bravery?" "The biggest coward iG
the coachw These were some Of the
protests that were hurled against tho
8 man of much reputation. His conduc
-s in bearing them convinced every one
\ that he was not only not brave, bu
unusually cowardy. He did not resen
single one of these insulting re
proaches Indeed, he did not seem {,
hear them, keeping his eye out tn,
window looking at the ground w
passed over and watching for some
y thing.
Fl Presently the road made a turn, ant
I the coach passed around it and benin,
clump of trees. Steele flung open tn
q coach door, jumped out, unstrOpped
Winchester from under the boot an
started back, STOPPING among som
. buCbnc CO oc NOT IN ba conn
am not brave man, but am
very curious one. Seized with a desir
4: to see the rest of the story for my
SELF | allghted and went after th
guard. We had gone about half
nd mile from the spot where we had bee
of robbed, and third of this dstanc
Ith was n depression In the ground. Tai
'or ing position in this depression. | coul
yn see all | wanted-lp s,r saw Stee
m lodging along Il S,Ort distance ahea
on of me, and abou, the sanr distanC
ms beyond him were lc robbers dlvidir
an the swaG they hal taken from Il
Nv Then from out Il clump OF sagebrush
-, saw a puff of smoke, heard the craC
TO- Of Steele's Winchester, and robb
nm. fell. Before could have counted f'
Il there were another puff and crack, al
aid another robber fell. The third ms
ted had only time to look wildly abo
uld him when he, too, went down.
'p' Then Steele advanced cautiously. !
l -, he approached one Of the robbers RAJ
~ ed himself on his elbow and was abo
Of to fire at Steele when the guard dro
the ped him, this time for good. SteC
Re- went to the place where the bodl
Mr. lay, gathered up their spoil, turn
OF and came slowly back. When he car
'u'. up to me l remarked 10 him that
.n' m had been very lucky TO find the re
~ bcrs engaged. and he replied that th
w usually divided the plunder at once
ot' i that each man could shift for hlms'
, without losing his share.
W. went back with the little man
~ 1Jr' the coach, which was standing whe
.''' va had loft IL and Steele asked ca