was the vigilance of his guards,
there did not seem much chance.

The stage kept on its way till it entered a narrow roadway, lined on one
side by a thick growth of trees.

Melville, watching the colonel narrowly, saw that, in spite of his
attempt at calmness, his excitement was at fever heat.

The cause was very evident, for at this point a tall figure bounded from
the underbrush, disguised by a black half mask, through which a pair of
black eyes blazed fiercely.

"Stop the stage!" he thundered to the driver, "or I will put a bullet
through your head."

The driver, as had been directed, instantly obeyed.

CHAPTER XXVII. COL. WARNER CHANGES FRONT.

It may seem a daring thing for one man to stop a stage full of
passengers, and require them to surrender their money and valuables, but
this has been done time and again in unsettled portions of the West. For
the most part the stage passengers are taken by surprise, and the road
agent is known to be a desperado, ready to murder in cold blood anyone
who dares oppose him.

In the present instance, however, the passengers had been warned of
their danger and were ready to meet it.

Brown--for, of course, the masked man was the landlord--saw four
revolvers leveled at him from inside the stage.

"Let go that horse, my friend, or you are a dead man!" said Conrad
Stiefel, calmly. "Two can play at your game."

Brown was taken by surprise, but he was destined to be still more
astonished.

Col. Warner protruded his head from the window, saying:

"Yes, my friend, you had better give up your little plan. It won't
work."

Such language from his confederate, on whom he fully relied, wholly
disconcerted the masked robber.

"Well, I'll be blowed!" he muttered, staring, in ludicrous perplexity,
at his fellow conspirator.

"Yes, my friend," said the colonel, "I shall really be under the
necessity of shooting you myself if you don't leave us alone. We are all
armed and resolute. I think you had better defer your little scheme."

Brown was not quick-witted. He did not see that his confederate was
trying cunningly to avert suspicion from himself, and taking the only
course that remained to him. Of course, he thought he was betrayed, and
was, as a natural consequence, exasperated.

He released his hold on the horses, but, fixing his eyes on the colonel
fiercely, muttered:

"Wait till I get a chance at you! I'll pay you for this."

"What an idiot!" thought Warner