The Nevada County picayune., 1911-09-08


 reiterated instructions to keep it safe | guarded.
 But neither through the hours of night nor in the early dawn, when he mounted by preference the vacant seat by the staee-driver, did Whist ling Sandy vouchsafe an explanation of the why's and wherefores of his burden. None but an observant eye could have detected when he bound his tiny poke" of gold inside the lit tie shirt, that in his estimation the latter was the more precious. Nor could any one have observed that this sollcItude was continued at Forest Hill, where the steaming horses and sleigh from Indian Spring gave place to fresh ponies and wheels.
 Away off down the divide, through ever-decreasing snow and over wind swept. rockstrewn spots, the stage clumsily rattled. Its inside passen- gers, consisting of a travelling man for an Eastern mining-machine house and a large, fat woman, who had been a cook at an upland mining camp, bump Su hithSl anu yOll as tue feHlCle IOunu decliyities
 Every now and then the driver, as he threw his lash out over the lead CTS, complained, in the whispering voice of the West about the responsi- bilities that had been thrust upon him in this trip.
 Here comes a cleanup. from the Golconda-twenty thousand, anyhow and for the fust time in year they ain't no Wells-Fargo man along to watch the job. Last time this thing happened they stuck us up and poor old Tom Smith gifts shot off'n the box for -forgettin to shove up his hands over the lower half of his mug makes a gentle request"
 Sandy inyoluntarily thrust his hand around the bucksktn shirt, which, to- gether with the scant store Of wealth, reposed within the sagging folds of his blue flannel shirt.
 Great heavens! He had never thought of this before. Suppose they should be held up on this trip? He l wouldn't mind the loss of his poke or any other valuable possession of his 1 own, but the shirt Why, if the high waymen got that, his little pardner" way back east would wait disappoint- ed on that fast-approaching Christmas day. But. shucks! they want goin' to be no hold-up." and he lighted his l pipe.
 Even in the land of certainty the unusual happens. So it was that as they rounded the turn of dread Dead Mans Curve, there came crisply out l in the morning air the command Halt and hands up! The brakes for i yours!"
 Sandy, for the instant bewildered, caught kaleidoscopic glance of two masked men on the hillside above the mountain-road, menacing figure near the head of the leaders, a point cd rife, and the drivers frantic ef forts to pull up. Like a flash came l the thought of his mission and the necessity for escape.
 The whip lay before him. Without a thought of consequences and regard l less of the recklessness of his action, he seized the whip, sprang to his feet in the box, and sent the long lash curling, quivering and viciously snap 1 ping across the palpitant Hanks of the maddened leaders. At the top of his voice he urged the horses into con- tinued speed. swearing with only such oaths as come to the man of the from l tier when meeting q crisis.
 The driver, astonished, released his | foot from the brake and thoughtlessly rose to a half-standing posture. A rifle on the hillside cracked with q | spiteful suddenness, and in a huddled | heap the driver dropped forward, lib l erating the reins from his hands. The l terrified horses threw themselves into the traces, the coach gave leap ahead. and, driverless and aimless on the mountaiu-shelf, the race was on.
 Again rife sang from the hillside, and one of the wheel-horses dropped, stricken so suddenly by death that it's body blocked the way, threw the other wheelhorse out of the road, and brought the stage to an abrupt stand still Even as the wheels ceased turning, the rife spoke again, carry ing death to the other wheel-horse. The leaders. surging upon the tugs, broke loose from the blocking burden. and went clattering down tLe road to the echo of pursuing shots.
 A gaunt man, rifle in hand, jumped cometlike from the seat beside the dead driver and sought protection and barricade behind the body of fallen horse. A black barrel was thrust forth l from his place of hiding, and instantly carried a messenger of death to the nearest outlaw.
 The other two, surprised, baked, and angered, jumped to cover behind convenient boulders, and sent volley