Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-02-05
CHAPTER w

Toward midday they stopped at
Stage Stop in a bit of alpine valley
where they nooned, ate at a long
oilcloth-covered table and changed
horses.
Then piling back into the stage
and, with a crack of Long Peters
whip, they were again on their way.
On the high seat, rolling his ciga-
rette, Cole Cody looked well pleased
with the world. He had handed the
two ladies up into the coach.
They swirled away through Fid-
dler's High Pass, curved hazardous
ly along the steep sides of Indian
Mountain, made descent with
brakes squealing into Long Valley,
and then began climbing again, and
SO the bright afternoon slid away and
shadows began running out across
their way and, from the gloom of
Dark Canyon, they saw star.
But it was daylight again when
they crested the next rocky ridge,
and Long Peters, flinging out his
whip and sending his horses along
with a rush where there was a
stretch of downhill slope, said to
Cody,
Look sharp, way down there and
straight ahead, and maybe you'll
see the sun flash on windows in Bald
Eagle. It's only twenty mile from
here. And inside the hour, when
we start down the Georgia Road
you'll see it again, only it'll be
lamps by then. Hold your hair on,
young feller!"
Once Cody thought that he did see
a flash of light on twenty mile dis
tant windows, but it was merely a
wink and a CLINT and he might have
fancied it. The sun was almost
down; it was hidden by a pine
studded shoulder of the mountains
as they rocketed down into another
steep-sided little valley.
1t was gone for the day when they
swept upward again, and the stars
were out in earnest. Even yet there
was no deep dark, a thickening
dusk, rather, closing in about them,
with the stars at their shining best.
Cole Cody put back his shoulders
and breathed deep, the glory of the
oncoming night a lovely thing, the
night air strong and clean and
heady, the tang of pines upon it
like spice.
Then all of a sudden and without
warning, startling him out of rev.
erie fit for the hour, the stage driver
cursed explosively and damned on
his brakes and leaned back against
his reins until he pulled his horses
back on their launches, punched
and struggling, with the front wheels
against the wheeler's rumps. Quick
cries of alarm burst from the
coach's interior. Cody stared Won
,deringly at what he could see of the
drivers face.
There's a tree across the road,"
muttered Long Peters. And Cody,
leaning out and peering closely at
last saw it; not ten feet ahead of
the leaders. Long Peters had seen
it first, and in time before the coach
had piled up on it, it being Long
Peters business to keep his eyes
on the road for-Well, for things like
a fallen tree.
Nov, that's funny"
"Sit tight! Not so damn funny,
Cody. That tree didn't put itself
there. It's hold-up. Some damn
fool must have thought l was carry
ing Wells Fargo strong box. Well,
l amt"
A voice, a deep, rumbling, roughly
unpleasant voice called,
Take it easy, driver. It's hold
up"
1t was hard to make out where
the voice came from. On one side
of the road was steep slope pitch
ing brokenly down into the dark
depths of a ravine whence rose the
rush and swirl of a hidden stream;
on the other side was the rising flank
of the mountain, made secret place
with its timber and with clumps and
thickets of manzanita and chaparral
and mountain laurel. So it was clear
enough that the highwayman was
somewhere on the upper side, but
there were hundred shadowy spots
there to harbor him.
eff l could only get glimpse of
that" Cody heard him muttering
to himself, his voice hushed with
yearning
"You heard mel" the voice called
again.
Yes, heard you'll" Long Peters
called back, moving his body little
to one side and the other, craning
his neck, praying for that longed-
for glimpse. "You must be crazy.
This is the Bald Eagle stage, hon.
bre, and there's no strong box on it.
You ought to know that much"
''I'm not after any strong box. Do
what I tell you and nobody won't
get hurt. You've got passenger
want to talk to. Tell him to step
along and l won't even hurt him.
But he'd better bring with him what
he's carrying, or I'll cut his damn