the morning, and along toward afternoon most of
the passengers began to feel pretty sleepy, and dozed off. I was among
the number. Suddenly I was awakened by a shout of 'hands up!' and found
myself looking full into the muzzle of a blue barreled Colt, held in the
hand of a masked man.

"There was nothing for it but to obey, seeing he had the drop on us, so
up went our hands over our heads. There were six other passengers in the
coach, but if we had been sixteen we would have been no better off.

"As we gazed in a sort of fascination at the ugly-looking revolver,
another masked man entered the coach and commenced systematically to
relieve the passengers of their valuables. I happened to be nearest the
front of the coach, and so did not receive the benefit of his attentions
at first. He had almost reached me when there was a commotion outside,
and he straightened up to listen, all his senses on the alert.

"He was between me and the door in which his companion was standing. For
the moment the man in the door could not get at me except through his
comrade, and I resolved to grasp the opportunity. In a flash I had
reached down into the breast of my coat and grasped the butt of my
revolver. Before the desperado in front of me could get his gun in
action, I had fired. At the first shot he dropped to the ground and, as
he fell, a bullet from the man in the doorway took my hat off. I pulled
the trigger as fast as my fingers could work, and he did the same. I
have only a confused recollection of smoke, flashes of flame, shouts and
a dull shock in my left arm. In what must have been but a few seconds it
was all over. With my own gun empty, I waited to see what would happen.
I knew that if by that time I hadn't killed the bandit, he had me at his
mercy. And even with him disposed of, I fully expected to be plugged by
the man outside who was holding the driver under guard.

"But he must have had a streak of yellow in him, for when he failed to
see either of his comrades come out of the coach he concluded that they
were either dead or prisoners, and made off as fast as his pony could
carry him. By that time we passengers had rushed out of the coach, and
some of us began firing at the fugitive. But a revolver is not very
accurate over two or three hundred feet, and I doubt if the desperado
was even grazed. I was unable to shoot for, as I had realized by this
time, my left arm was broken just above the elbow, and I was unable to
l