“No?” exclaimed the stage driver.
“Fact,” said Hugh. “He was afraid of a mouse, and when one ran over his face, just after he had gone to bed, he got up and sat by the fire all night for fear it would do it again.”
“Why, Hugh,” said Jack, “don’t you remember that the great Napoleon was afraid of a cat. It would make him sick if there was one in the room, even though he didn’t see it and didn’t know that it was there. And Napoleon was one of the greatest soldiers that ever lived, and, I suppose, a brave man.”
“Yes,” said Hugh, “I reckon he was.”
“I have known lots of people,” Jack went on, “who were afraid of snakes. It didn’t make any difference whether they were venomous snakes or not. Just as long as they were snakes, they scared these people.”
“That’s so,” said Hugh. “I’ve known one man that was afraid of snakes, and, what’s more, he could tell if there was one around, whether he saw it or not. He said he smelled them. That seems queer, too.”
“It does for a fact,” remarked the driver.
Before they had passed through the Prickly Pear Canyon they reached the stage station where the horses were to be changed. There all hands got down and walked about a little to stretch their legs; but in a very few minutes four fresh horses had been harnessed and they recommenced their journey.
“Do you ever have trouble with road agents on this line?” Hugh asked of the driver.
“No,” said he, “we’ve never been stopped but once. The fact is, we scarcely ever carry anything that makes it worth while for anyone to stop the stage. Early this spring, though, my partner was held up just as he was coming over the Bird Tail Divide. There had been some talk of sending out some dust from Benton by the stage, but it was given up and the gold went out another way. Of course none of us knew that it was going, but the news must have got out somehow, for that night, just as the stage reached the top of the Bird Tail Divide and the two leaders had got up onto the level, two men stepped out in the moonlight and told Buck—that’s my partner—to stop. He started to lay the whip on his horses, but they were all walking, and the men brought down their guns and called to him again that if he started they’d kill the leaders. So he pulled up and asked the men what they wanted, and they said they wanted the treasure chest and told him to throw it down. He said there wasn’t any treasure chest, and if they didn’t believe him they could come and search the coach. With that a third man that Buck hadn’t seen before popped up from the side of the road and climbed up and looked through the boot and searched Buck, and then went through the whole stage. They were a pretty mad lot when they let Buck go on.”