Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-06-11
the west coast. had already made labor

the west coast, had already made labor
abundant.
I; was not long in deciding, therefore
that I had best make for the logging
camps tributary to the sawmills of the
Humboldt Bay port of Eureka.
And it was with no small misgivings
that I struck out north from Red
Bluffs, quite alone, for no road or trail
between the mountain camps and the
coast was then even measurably safe
for travellers.
Joaquin Marietta, Three Finger
jack and Tom Bell preyed as ruth
lessly upon the poorest emigrants and
prospectors as upon the rich miners
and merchants and the fat mail
pouches and treasure boxes of the
stages. From the fne-meshed net OF
violence and crime with which they
dragged the western slope from Shasta
south to San Gorgonio pass, there was
no more chance of escape for shrimp
than for tuna.
| To be- sure, it was little enough l
| lad to tempt even the greediest plund.
erer OF them all. Nothing, indeed, hut
my poor little cayuse, the wreck of a
saddle and my already well-loved pis-
toll; but it was my all, and to lose
these would leave me poor indeed.
Thus it was with every sense alert,
keen as housing cat, that trotted
north along the stage road, my hand
on my pistol while threading thick
cts, slipping singerly around turns in
the road.
Nor was long running into trouble.
And the oldest thing Of all is that,
when trouble Of any sort first breaks
about me, I have always. felt scared
half to death" possessed Sy an almost
overm astering inclination to run from
it, and yet in the next breath could
never get my own consent to keep
from butting straight into 1t.
Funny! never could understand 1t
myself And yet, come to think OF It,,
not so funny after all, for it was the
wild lust of battling that with me was
always crowding close on the heels OF
all my biggest scares that plunged me
into all my most serious difficulties.
But one thing can truthfully say:
few of the rows have been IN have
come of any personal grievance OF my
own, or of first aggression by me;
usually they have resulted from my
interference when have found others
getting the worst of it.
And since l was still stranger to
gun lighting, 1t was devil Of big
scare got early my third morning out
of Red Bluffs, when suddenly l heard
a heavy fusillade Of shots only q short
distance ahead of me. At the moment
l was crossing the crest of high hill,
the road walled in by tall timber and
occasional patches of dense scrub.
The heavy, dull roar Of shotguns
was answered by the angry. snappy
bark of rifles and pistols. l knew 1t
was a hold-up of some sort, probably
of the stage, for 1t was due to meet the
down coach thereabouts.
My first impulse was to ride my
cayuse to death getting away from the
sound of that firing; but-why, the
Lord only knows-what I really did.
on another impulse, Immediately So
quent on the first and wholly without
deliberation, was to hide and tie my
horse in a bunch Of scrub and to begin
a swift stalk toward the racket.
An advance of hundred and fifty
yards brought me to the top Of the
north slope of the hill was crossing,
and In full view of as nervy a single
handed fight as have seen, since, after
lifetime spent at the game.
i Later, learned the coach carried.
besides the driver, the messenger"
or guard, Billy Dobson, and deputy
sheriff, both on the box with the driv-
err; behind them, miner and cattle
man; back of them, on the roof of the
coach, nine Cinnamon; inside, an old
negress and hve other passengers; and
that just as the team was straining up
the last steep ascent, blown and weak
of their long pail, suddenly out of the
bush rode man on black mule, who
leveled shotgun at Dobson and called
Hands up and keep your seats, and
we will not shoot"
Shoot and be damned" was Dob
sons answer and as his lips were
framing the words, he jerked his cap
and-ball pistol and fired, hitting the
hold-up fairly in the center OF the
stomach, just that small fraction of
second ahead of the hold-up's shot to
spell a win But, his mule whirling
at the flash of the messengers shot,
the slugs from the bandit shotgun en-
tered the coach and killed the old ne.
gress.
Instantly five more bandits Jumped
out of the brush and opened fire on
Dobson, and 1t was very few seconds
later had the scene in full view.
And it was both heroic and humor-
GUS scene there beheld. The chinksI
were tumbling off the roof Of the coach
and ducking into cover, screaming like
they had lost their pigtails; the cattle
man was showing a fancier burst OF
speed than any Of the chinks, and the
high coach door was jammed with a
fighting, screeching tangle of the In
siders.