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Cattle Brands - A Collection of Western Camp-fire Stories by Andy Adams
page 21 of 229 (09%)
shirt. When he disappeared we were the cheapest lot of men imaginable.
It was amusing to hear the excuses, threats, and the like; but the
fact remained the same, that a dozen of us had been robbed by a lone
highwayman. I felt good over it, as the money in the grip had been
overlooked.

"Well, we cleared out the obstruction in the road, and got aboard the
coach once more. About four o'clock in the morning we arrived at our
destination, only two hours late. In the hotel office where the stage
stopped was the very man who had robbed us. He had got in an hour
ahead of us, and was a very much interested listener to the incident
as retold. There was an early train out of town that morning, and at
a place where they stopped for breakfast he sat at the table with
several drummers who were in the hold-up, a most attentive listener.

"He was captured the same day. He had hired a horse out of a livery
stable the day before, to ride out to look at a ranch he thought of
buying. The liveryman noticed that he limped slightly. He had collided
with lead in Texas, as was learned afterward. The horse which had been
hired to the ranch-buyer of the day before was returned to the corral
of the livery barn at an unknown hour during the night, and suspicion
settled on the lame man. When he got off the train at Pueblo, he
walked into the arms of officers. The limp had marked him clearly.

"In a grip which he carried were a number of sacks, which he supposed
contained gold dust, but held only taulk on its way to assayers in
Denver. These he had gotten out of the express the night before,
supposing they were valuable. We were all detained as witnesses. He
was tried for robbing the mails, and was the coolest man in the court
room. He was a tall, awkward-looking fellow, light complexioned, with
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