Adventures of Buffalo Bill from Boyhood to Manhood
CHAPTER XXI.
WINNING A REWARD. Driving over the trail through the rocky Mountains, the drivers were
constantly annoyed by road-agents, whose daring robberies made it most
dangerous for a coach to pass over the line.
If the driver did not obey their stern command: "Halt! up with
your hands!" he was certain to be killed, and the passenger within who
offered the slightest resistance to being robbed was sure to have his
life end just there.
So dangerous had it become to drive the
mountain passes, as several drivers had been shot, the company
found it difficult to get men to carry the stages through, and offered
double wages to any one who had the courage to drive ever the road-
agents dominions.
Buffalo Billy at once volunteered for the perilous work, and his
first trip through he met with no resistance.
The next he was halted and promptly obeying the order to throw up
his hands, he was not molested, though the, gold-box was taken from the
coach, and all the passengers were robbed.
After this it was almost a daily occurrence for the road-agents
to rob a stage-coach, and the Overland Company offered a reward of five
thousand dollars for the capture of their chief and the band.
One day Billy drove away from the station with a coach full of
women, not a single man having the pluck to go, and promptly, at their
favorite place, the road-agents appeared.
With military promptitude Buffalo Billy obeyed and putting on the
California brakes, he drew his horses to a stand-still.
"Well, what have you got to-day that's worthy our picking, my Boy
Driver?" said the road-agent leader approaching the coach.
"Only women, and I beg you not to be brute enough to scare 'em,"
said Billy.
"Oh! they must pay toll; and generally have good watches; but what
is it, a woman's rights meeting, or a Seminary broke loose?"
"Ask 'em," was the quiet reply, and as the leader of the
road-agents, closely followed by big half-dozen men, all in masks, rode up to
the stage door, Billy suddenly drew his revolver and with the flash the
chief fell dead.
"Out, boys!" yelled Billy, and the stage doors flew open, dresses
and bonnets were cast aside, and nine splendid fellows began a rapid
fire upon the amazed road-agents.
One or two managed to escape; but that was all, for after four of
their number had fallen, the balance were glad enough to cry for
quarter, which was shown them only until a rope could be thrown over the
limb of a tree and they drawn up to expiate their crimes by hanging.
It was Billy's little plot, and he got the larger part of the
reward, and the credit of ridding the country of a daring band of
desperate men.
Shortly after this bold act, hearing of the continued failing
health of his mother, Buffalo Billy, like the dutiful son he was, once
more resigned his position as stage-driver, and returned to Kansas,
arriving there a few months after the breaking out of the civil war in
1861. |