STORY OF A TRAVELLER.
“About a month ago,” said he, “I was riding along this very road, and in this very coach, and just about this place; it may be half a mile or so ahead from here.” Here a dyspeptic individual at the corner of the coach gave a groan, and muttered something which sounded like a wish that he was at home.
“It was just about daylight, when all at once the horses stopped.” Here the coach came to a sudden halt, and every one of us fully expected that the robbers had taken our horses by the bridles; but the voice of the driver reassured us, as he said he had stopped to hitch up a trace.
“When they stopped the coach,” continued the traveller, “I was just rubbing my eyes, and wondering how much longer it would take us to get through. All at once, I heard some one yell out to the driver, ‘Sit still there, and hold up your hands!’ And just about that time, an ugly-looking revolver came through the curtains of the coach, and a fellow with a mask on stuck his head partly through. ‘Now, gentlemen,’ said this robber, ‘just step out here on the ground, and don’t go putting your hands around your pockets. If you do, you will get shot.’ His manners were so fascinating that we could not resist. It was not very light, but as he held that pistol under my nose, I could almost swear that I could look down to the bottom of the barrel, and see the bullet resting there. We stepped out, one by one, and as we did so, there were two other fellows with masks on waiting to receive us.
“PUT UP YOUR HANDS.”
“‘Put up your hands,’ said the first robber to each of us, as we stepped out of the coach. ‘Put up your hands, or you will get a bullet through you!’
“I would rather put up my hands at any time without having a bullet through me, and I put them up at once. They stood us up in a row, with each fellow sticking his hands up in the air, like a class of school-boys ready to answer questions. Then, when they got us all out, two of them stood guard, and a third went through us. He went through us first for our pistols, and took every one, and laid them in a pile on the ground, right between the two robbers, and in such a way that we could not get at them without being shot.
“They then went through us for watches and money, and they made a very good haul. I did not have much—only just enough for my expenses; and when I told them so, and they saw it, they told me I had better keep it.
“There was one passenger, though, who had twelve hundred dollars in coin. They took the whole lot, but generously gave him twenty dollars to pay his expenses. ‘Nothing mean about us,’ said one of the robbers, as he handed back the twenty-dollar gold piece. ‘We don’t want to be rough with any of you, but we must make our living.’
“When they had cleaned us out, they let us go back into the stage. They told us to keep still, or the first man that moved would get his head shot off. One of the fellows stood by the door of the coach, to see that we obeyed orders. He was not going to have any fluking.