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 While half a dozen
desperate highwaymen, each armed with a couple of six-shooters, and
completely masked, were awaiting the arrival of the stage at a proposed
place of action, the majority of the party inside were journeying in
dreamland. I dreamed I was comfortably at home, until the exclamations,
"Halt. Stop that stage!" "Throw out those express boxes!" caught my ears,
and I then well knew that, instead of being in San Francisco, I was out on
one of the great deserts of
Nevada, and
at the mercy of the knights of the road.
We were all awake in an
instant. We knew the cause of alarm; we knew we were in the hands of the
"road agents" some of us had been there before.
"Driver! " ejaculated the
robber-in-chief, a tall, well-masked fellow, "mind you, take good care of
that team, and don't move an inch until I give you orders."
"All right," said Baldy;
and, addressing himself to his off leader "Be-have yourself, Clara;
be-have yourself; tut, tut, tut. Clara! be-have yourself; these gentlemen
won't hurt you, darling (in a low voice) but they'll make it uncomfortable
for my passengers.
"For God's sake, can't
you keep those horses quiet ? "roared the leader of the gang; " Now, you
man up there with the driver, throw down those express boxes and be very
lively about it, too! "
The man threw down the
express boxes as if he had been an adept in the business.
"No. 2! " shouted the
chief to one of his accomplices, "you watch the horses; No. 3, go round to
the other door; No. 4, stand here with me; Nos. 5 and 6, cover the rear.
Get down here, you two men on the outside. No. 2, search them for arms.
Hold up your hands, gentlemen, and let this fellow see if you've got any
weapons about you. We will not hurt you; but we do not propose to take any
chance of getting our own brains blown out for a few paltry twenty dollar
pieces."
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A few seconds covered
this whole performance, so far. The rascals surprised us round a curve,
and in the twinkling of an eye we were surrounded, and a dozen
six-shooters were leveled at our heads. The outsiders were unarmed, and
taken to the rear of the stage, and placed one behind the other. Then
Ashley, who understood the situation perfectly well, was ordered out. He
had parted with his last ducat the night before at the intellectual game
of "pitch seven-up " and was a picture of composure. Then the poor
Frenchman, who hesitated in his movements, was jerked out and placed in
the rear of Ashley. I was the last passenger called for. I was searched
for arms, and taken to the rear, and placed behind Siebler.
The moon looked down upon
a party of nine gentlemen, with their hands up in the air, covered well by
cocked revolvers, and willing to go peaceably home.
"Now, gentlemen, I'll
relieve you of your loose change," urbanely remarked the captain of the
crowd; and down went his delicate hand into my breeches-pocket; and up
came seven twenty-dollar gold pieces. He went into all of my other
pockets, and examined me closely to see if I wore a belt. He also amused
himself by taking my watch and chain; and then passed to Siebler, whom he
denominated a poor cuss, adding, "Why, you haven't got the price of a
drink, have you ? Here, I'll lend you two-and-a-half, and you can pay it
back to your friend in the rear." Siebler never returned the aforesaid
coin, however.
In searching the two army
officers, several hundred dollars in currency was captured. Then came the
Dutchman's turn, who, upon the approach of the captain, left his place in
the line exclaiming, "Vat der teufel for dis peessiness? I don't
oondurstand dose dings."
"Do you understand that?" said No. 4, placing the muzzle of his pistol near the ear of the enraged Teuton, and snapping a cap.
"No!" he replied,
savagely; "mein Gott in Himmel, I don't oondustand dese toings;" at the
same time knocking the pistol aside with one hand, and quietly tucking a
handful of small gold into his boot-leg.
"That's played out, my
boy," said No. 1, who was keenly watching the operation; "take that
bullion out of your boot, or I'll leave you here for the crows."
Rather than be
transformed into food for unclean birds, Mr. Francis Seibler transferred
the deposit from his boot-leg to the capacious pocket of the captain.
Mr. Lamoreux, the
Frenchman, was next ransacked, and relieved of over $2,000, which he
carried in a belt, in $20 gold pieces. He saved more than that amount in
greenbacks, however, by cutting a hole in his pocket with his penknife,
and letting it and his paper money fall into his boot.
Not a dime was realized
from Mr. Ashley, notwithstanding the most careful manipulation of that
gentleman's pockets. His funds had gone, as Jim Fisk would have happily
remarked, "where the woodbine twineth."
The next gentleman saved
his money by putting it upon his hat, while Mr. Simons, the person who
threw out the Wells-Fargo express matter, quietly dropped a wallet
containing $10,000 in currency into the front boot of the stage.
The robbers then searched
the vehicle, but finding nothing that they deemed valuable, the captain
shouted "Get your seats, now, and be off, and be particularly careful not
to return!" In a few moments we were " all set," to use a stage expression,
and our journey to Austin was resumed.
 These feats of
highwaymanship are of frequent occurrence upon the Pacific slope, even up
to the present time.
California,
Oregon,
Arizona and
Nevada have
many long stage routes, over which travel some of the richest men of the
far West. The treasure boxes of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s express are the
principal incentive of these raids of banditti, however, while hundreds of
thousands of dollars in bars of gold and silver are transported from the
mines all over the Pacific States and Territories in this way.
While almost every
traveler goes armed in these sections of sparsely inhabited country, there
is hardly an exception to the general rule of yielding gracefully to the
demands of these "road agents." They always manage to take you unawares,
and as quick as thought, almost, you find yourself surrounded by half a
dozen desperadoes, more or less, your every action being dictated by a
six-shooter in close proximity to your head.
During the White Pine excitement hundreds of
thousands of dollars were forcibly taken from travelers and the express
companies. During the past twenty years stages from Salt Lake City to
Helena,
Montana, have been successfully robbed scores of times; so, also,
has the stage from Placerville and
Sacramento,
California, to Virginia
City,
Nevada, and
the Washoe silver mines. Fourteen years ago three stages were robbed
within four miles of Virginia City by ten masked men, nearly forty
passengers being relieved of their valuables. The
Los Angeles and San
Francisco stage was stopped twelve years ago by four highwaymen, only a
mile and a half from the former town. In this case the robbers were
afterward captured, and one of them, turning State's evidence, convicted
the other three, who were sent to the penitentiary for fifteen years.
Charlie Ames, the chief, when sentence was passed upon him, remarked to
the sheriff that he would like to play a game of "old sledge" with the
judge (Hon. A. J. King) whether he should make it thirty years or nothing.
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Old
West Wanted Posters and Wild West Prints
