The daily Alaskan., 1908-11-13
,. The COwardIyGuard
loriginaLl

lD Lle blALlSS Oue uOEuluB 4elL Oeu' yer for the south. It was the day of road agents, and l confess 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- lsRed me, for from the time l entered the state I had heard of the brave deeds of this same Dick Steele.
 When we were about to start and Steele was pointed out to me I was surprised. He was little fellow about five feet five inches, and couldn't see how he could terrlfy even a 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 cold looking steel at that, and I put him down for one of those men In 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 l left Denver for Cheyenne to take the Union Pacific railroad for the east Steele was again the guard. This time when we were midway on our journey we heard the cry ahead, Hold up your hands" and the coach came to a stop. A man came and stood on one side of the coach, holding us all covered with a 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 brlstle with weapons and kill the two men before they knew what hurt them. Instead of that he tumbled out with his hands in the air as nimbly as young fawn.
 Seeing that we had no protection from this yaunted hero, we all got out and stood in 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. I thought perhaps he might stoop and pull pair of rcvolvers from his boots; but, al- though he had no especial watching, he did not make the slightest move ment. When the robbers were through with us 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 great outburst against Steele You're pretty guard" Where did you get your reputation for bravery?" "The biggest coward in the coachw These were some of the protests that were hurled against the man of much reputation. His conduct In bearing them convinced every one that be was not only not brave, but unusually cowardly. He did not resent single one of these insulting re- breaches. Indeed, he dld not seem to hear them, keeping his eye out the window looking at the ground we passed over and watching for some thing.
 Presently the road made a turn, and the coach passed around 1t and behind a clump of trees. Steele flung open the coach door, jumped out, unstrapped Q Winchester from under the boot and started back, stooplng among some bushes so as not to be seen.
 I am not a brave man, but I am very curious one. Seized with q desire to see the rest of the story for my self, I allghted and went after the guard. We had gone about half mile from the spot where we had been robbed, and a third of this distance was a depression in the ground. Tax lng position in this depression, could see all I wanted to see. 1 saw Steele dodglng along q short distance ahead of me, and about the same distance beyond him were the robbers dividing the swag they had taken from us. Then from out a clump of sagebrush l saw a pun of smoke, heard the crack of Steele's Winchester, and robber fell. Before could have counted five there were another puff and crack, and another robber fell. The third man had only time to look wildly about him when he roo, went down.
 Then Steele advanced cautiously. As he approached one of the robbers rais- ed himself on his elbow and was about to fire at Steele when the guard drop ped him, this time for good Steele went to the place where the bodies lay, gathered up their spoil, turned and came slowly back. When he came up to me I remarked to him that he had been very lucky to find the rob bers engaged, and he replied that they usually divided the plunder at once, so that each man could shift for himself