to their home again. The old man had hoped that absence from her lover
and meetin' with other people in different scenes, would induce her to
forget her old passion, and to realize the folly she had committed in
seekin' to marry such a worthless fellow against her father's wishes."

"I don't see what this has got to do with the bandits, though," now said
the detective, who was getting a little anxious to find out what all
this was leading to.

"I was afraid it wouldn't interest you much," replied the driver; "but
you'll soon see the point to my story and what this young girl had to
do with it."

"I beg your pardon," said Manning, "I am interested in it, only I was
anxious to hear where the bandits came in. Let's take a little drop of
brandy, and I promise you I won't interrupt you again until you have
finished."

Here he handed the flask over to the old man, who took it with the
remark that it "looked for all the world like the one carried by the old
ranchman," and after a hearty pull at it, passed it back again, and
resumed his story.

"As the darkness increased, the old ranchman, who it seemed had heard of
the recent robberies, began to grow a little nervous, although he didn't
appear to be a dern bit scared. He looked carefully to the condition of
his pistols, and also advised me to have mine handy in case of need;
nothin' would satisfy him but I had to get mine out of the box, and
after he had looked them all over, they were laid on the seat between
us. Not content with this, he warned the inside passengers that there
was danger to be apprehended, and that there were bandits on the road.
He urged them to have their weapons in readiness, so that in case the
robbers did come, we could give them a red-hot reception. The people
inside caught the old man's spirit, and they all resolved that if an
attack did come they would meet it like men. To tell the truth, I didn't
fear any danger, and I thought the old man was excitin' everybody
without cause; but I didn't say anything, cause it wouldn't do any harm
anyhow, even if we were not molested.

"However, I had reckoned without my host, for just as we reached this
place, and were a-turnin' around this bend in the road, two men sprang
out from the bushes and grabbed the lead horses by the bits. Two more
jumped out on one side of the coach, and two more on the other, while
one man stepped up to me and demanded me to come down. Of course the
coach was stopped, and just a