The Daily Missoulian., 1914-08-02

\ ~ 90 With the story. The next move
i Ed Corbin made was to transfer from
Montana the shotgun messengers that
used to guard the shipments from yir-
gtnia city to Salt Lake city. They
came to sidney. they were tried and
1 true men md had been employed BY
/ the Wells Fargo Express company in
! earlier days on the Santa Fe stage line.
j cannot. recollect all their names,
but the chief Of them was Jim Brown.
This Is his true name and many OF
the old-timers In Montana will remem-
2 Der him. Jim Brown had but one eye,
i the other was shot out down on the
Santa. Fe, but let me tell you what
| Brown couldn't see with his one eye
was not worth seeing. There were
ak Of them. In the coach Morton the
treasure was shipped from Deadwood
/ II did not take long before the robbers
realised that they were running up
against q dangerous game The stage
coach WAS not held up as usual, but
other people were.
i presume 4 may as we'll bring to an
end the story Of Bill. Wild Bill was
his name. He Il was who did the rob-
bling Of the coaches and other people
/ going and coming Wild Bill, the
J; same young fellow that mentioned at
n Ogallaia, was the man who robbed the
stage coaches and other people
This went on for a while, then came
the treasure coach Morton, loaded with
money and also with six men with
sawcd.of shotguEs and they were not
distufbed out Of Deadwood except upon
one or two occasions, when the robbers
/ found out their mistake. Their bones
are bleaching now on the prairie and
there was no coroner's inquest.
Three Of the men sat ON top Of the
coach looking behind, In front and
sideways, while the other three were
inside the coach and that was the
l way big shipments were guarded
/ Then there was a day when a. big
shipment of gold bullion was made.
There were II bars of solid gold, each
/ valued at $4,000 and weighing about
/ forty five pounds each. The shipment
/ Wagsfnade Of course on the treasure
coach Morton, with three Of the men
l on top OF the coach and the others
inside. Nothing happened on this ship
ment. They reached my last ranch,
wafer Hole ranch, about twelve miles
from Sidney about 4 or : o'clock In
the evening. The stage people always
4 stopped at my ranches to get their
meals. While getting their meals that
day three of the messengers would 60
into eat while the other three would
wait in the coach finally all was done
and they rode in to Sidney. Ed Corbin
was there but took him in with my
own horses and buggy because we
could make better time and we got
into Sidney about half an hour ahead
4 Of the stage Mr.. Corbin drove up in
my buggy at the railroad station, in
formed the agent that he had a ship
4 meat Of about $4,000 in bullion to
be shipped to the Denver mint While
Corbin and the railroad agent were
talking the stage came in and Mr.. Cor
bin said: Alright, here is our money.
II We have travelled four days and nights
and. here itasis safe and sound. Tn
loadsit and give us your receipt"
This was in the evening The stage
] company wanted to get rid OF their re-
Il sponsibility and the railroad agent re-
! fused to accept the shipment There
II was a predtcanent. After some tele-
A graphing to Omaha it was finally de-
cided that the railroad company would
accept the shipment provided that the
SAN6C company ,Wuulu kudTU JIlG money
4 until the express train came along
next morning. At that time there was
only one train each way. passenger
and express on the Union Pacific. This
i train came to Sidney about O'Clock
in the morning, eastbound. After some
!, telegraphing to headquarters in Omaha
:, It was agreed that the agent at Sid
ney was to accept the shipment Of the
100000 in gold bars, also provided,
that the stage company would furnish
. the guard over night and see that the
! shipment was transferred to the ex-
press train. So far, SO good. The
railroad company took the money,
guarded by four men, sharp, shrewd
= and otherwise wide awake.
> The railroad depot at Sidney was at
! that day crude affair, a wooden
? building set UP on stills to meet the
: grade OF the track. The room where
the gold bars were put was q sort OF
q side room leading out from the reg
gnlar express office. It was dark as
there were no windows and used only
! as a room for stray baggage and other
! things.
Well the gold bars were put In that
room the door locked and the four
: shotgun messengers sitting or laying
7 in front of the door. So far, every
thing was lovely, but somebody was
y busy during the night. Somebody
crawled under the depot floor and
Y with augers bored holes through the
!. floor until finally tha whole shipment
y Of gold went crashing through to the
! ground. Now here win state that
!. few people will know how much a bal
of gold valued at $4,000 will weigh
It weighs about forty-fiv pounds and
y cannot be, carried In coat pocket
n Hearing the crash the shotgun messen.
Y gers bursted In the door, not waitint
to unlock It. only to see that all hat
disappeared. There was a nice how.
4 do you-do. One of the messenger.
n managed to crawl through the hole
and found 10 bars on the ground
where there should have been 12
The man. or men. who did this jot
grabbed two bars, got out in the dark.
y ness and until this day has not beer
q f1faC0vared When tho pxnrass fra1y