"I suppose they made you promise not to reveal the name of that man to the authorities?"
"Not at all; I could have done so, and he would have been tried and convicted on the evidence of myself and brother. He would have been shot without mercy, but the matter would not have ended there; the brigands would have avenged his death and assassinated both of us within a week, sure.
CAVALRY PURSUING A BAND OF ROBBERS.
"In some respects the brigands were not so bad as they have been painted," the gentleman continued. "The diligence companies have an arrangement whereby a traveller can buy a letter of credit to pay his bills with along the road, instead of carrying money, which would be a temptation to robbers. His expenditures are indorsed on the letter of credit by the company's agents, or he can draw a few dollars every night upon his letter to pay his hotel bill with. But it is necessary to carry some money in your pocket to pay the robbers for the trouble of stopping and examining you; if they find absolutely nothing to reward them for their efforts, you will very likely be killed as a warning to be more considerate the next time you travel. If they should rob you of your letter of credit, you can write or telegraph back to the agency where you obtained it, and a telegraphic transfer will be made for the amount remaining.
"Their usual plan of operations is to rush out suddenly from the road-side, and present pistols and guns in the faces of passengers and drivers, with a suddenness that prevents resistance. The passengers are ordered to alight, hold their hands in the air, then to lie down and place their mouths to the ground, and in this attitude their pockets are searched. The brigands are generally polite but firm, and in the American phrase, 'they won't stand any nonsense.' When the examination of pockets is completed they order the passengers to lie still for five or ten minutes, perhaps for a quarter of an hour, and during that time the fellows disappear from sight. If no resistance is offered no one is harmed, except once in a while when a blood-thirsty brigand kills for the sheer pleasure of it; but such fellows are soon apprehended, and generally they are betrayed by their followers, who do not relish the crimes that may be visited on their heads.
"Sometimes they build a barricade across the road at a place where there is a sharp turn, and in the confusion that follows the arrival of the coach at the barricade they perform their work. In such cases the robbers are concealed in the bushes all along the road-side, and the passengers suddenly discover a dozen or more guns bearing on them at once. Discretion is always advisable under such circumstances, and the traveller who is prudent will surrender his valuables at once.
"A friend of mine tells a story," he continued, "that illustrates the politeness of the Mexican robbers.
"He was travelling on horseback with a friend and a servant, and fell into the hands of a band of brigands whose leader was named Manuel. The fellows took everything of value that the travellers had, and then the chief told the sufferers that he would give them a pass which would save them from further molestation. Perhaps he was not altogether disinterested in so doing, as the exhibition of the pass would save his friends the trouble of searching an array of empty pockets and getting nothing for their trouble.