USA > Idaho > Vigilante days and ways : the pioneers of the Rockies, the makers and making of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming, Vol. I > Part 21
USA > Montana > Vigilante days and ways : the pioneers of the Rockies, the makers and making of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming, Vol. I > Part 21
USA > Oregon > Vigilante days and ways : the pioneers of the Rockies, the makers and making of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming, Vol. I > Part 21
USA > Washington > Vigilante days and ways : the pioneers of the Rockies, the makers and making of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming, Vol. I > Part 21
USA > Wyoming > Vigilante days and ways : the pioneers of the Rockies, the makers and making of Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming, Vol. I > Part 21
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" Wait a few minutes, Billy," said he, "and I will ride to Bannack with you. These passen- gers will be gone in a moment."
" Get up on the box with me," replied Rumsey. " These old ' plugs' at the wheel will need pretty constant whipping, and my exercise in that line yesterday has lamed my arm."
"I'm a good whipper," Bunton responded, laughing, " and if there's any 'go' in them, I can bring it out. They're a pair of 'played out '
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wheelers that had been turned out to rest, and I think we'll fail to get them beyond a walk, - but we'll give them a try."
The weather was cold and blustering. The cur- tains of the coach were fastened down. Percy, Madison, and " Bummer Dan " got in, and Bun- ton mounted the box beside Rumsey. The horses began to weaken before they reached the crossing of the creek, less than a mile away. There the road entered the gulch. Bunton, who had suc- ceeded, as he intended, in tiring the horses, sur- rendered the whip to Rumsey and got inside the coach. He knew what was coming. Rumsey whipped up the wheelers, but could not urge them into any faster gait. Cursing his " slow poke of a team," his eye caught the figures of two horse- men entering the gulch from a dry ravine a few rods in front of the coach. They were wrapped in blankets, with hoods over their heads, and armed with shotguns. Instantly the thought flashed through his mind that they were robbers.
" Look ! boys, look !" he shouted. " See what's coming. Get out your arms. The road agents are upon us."
The eyes of every man in the coach were peer- ing through the loopholes at the approaching bandits. Madison, the first to discover them, was
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searching for his pistol, when the robbers rode up, and in broken Irish, and assumed tones, with their guns aimed at the coach, yelled, -
" Up with your hands every one of you."
This formula, always used, was generally con- cluded with an abusive epithet. Bill Bunton, who had a part to enact, threw up his hands and in an imploring voice, exclaimed, -
" For God's sake don't kill me. You are welcome to all my money, - only spare my life."
The other inmates raised their arms as com- manded.
" Get out," shouted the robbers, " and hold up your hands. We'll shoot every man who puts his down."
The passengers descended hurriedly to the ground and stood with their arms upraised, await- ing further orders. Turning to Rumsey, who remained on the box holding the reins, the robbers ordered him to get down, and remove the arms from the passengers.
Not easily frightened, and anxious to escape a service so distasteful, Rumsey replied, -
" You must be fools to think I'm going to get down and let this team run away. You don't want the team. It can do you no good."
" Get down," said the robber spokesman with
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Coach Robberies.
an oath as he levelled his gun at Rumsey, " or I'll shoot the top of your head off."
" There's a man," said Rumsey, pointing to Bunton, " who is unarmed. Let him disarm the others."
" Oh !" replied Bunton in a lachrymose tone, " I'll hold the horses - I'll hold the horses, while you take off the pistols. Anything - anything, only don't shoot me."
" Go then, and hold the horses, you long-legged coward," said the robber ; "and now," he con- tinued, levelling his gun at and addressing Rum- sey, " get down at once, and do as you've been ordered, or you'll be a dead man in half a minute."
The order was too peremptory to be disobeyed. Rumsey tied the reins to the brake-handle, and jumped to the ground.
" Now take them arms off," said the robber, " and be quick about it too."
Removing the two navy revolvers from "Bum- mer Dan," Rumsey sidled off slowly, with the hope of getting a shot at the ruffians ; but they, comprehending his design, ordered him to throw them on the ground. As the choice lay between obedience or death, he laid them down, and was proceeding very slowly to remove the pistols from
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the other passengers, with the hope that by some fortunate chance a company of horsemen or some friendly train would come to the rescue before the villains could complete their work.
" Hurry up there," shouted the robber. "Don't keep us waiting all day."
After the passengers were freed of their arms, and the arms piled up near the road agents, the speaker of the two ordered Rumsey to relieve them of their purses. Bunton, who had all the time been petitioning for his life, took out his purse, and throwing it towards Rumsey, ex- claimed, -
" There's a hundred and twenty dollars, - all I have in the world. You're welcome to it, only don't kill me."
All this while, the men, not daring to drop their hands, directed Rumsey in his search for their purses. He had taken a sack of gold dust from Percy, one from Madison, and two from " Bummer Dan," and supposed his work to be completed.
" Have you got all ? " inquired the robber.
" All I could find," replied Rumsey.
Turning to Madison, the robber asked, pointing to the sacks, -
" Is that all you've got ?"
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Coach Robberies.
" No," said Madison, nudging his pocket with his elbow, " there's another in this pocket."
The road agent, in an angry manner, cursing Rumsey for trying to deceive him, ordered him to take it out : -
" Don't you leave nothing," was the stern, ungrammatical command.
Rumsey took the purse, and having added it to the pile, was about to resume his seat on the box.
" Where are you going ?" shouted both the robbers.
"To get on the coach, you fools," retorted Rumsey. "You've got all there is, and we want to go on now."
" Go back there, and get the big sack from that Irish bummer," said one of the robbers; and pointing his pistol at Dan, he added, " You're the man we're after. Get that strap off your shoul- der."
Poor Dan ! His money was very dear to him, but his life was dearer. As he could not save both, he commenced at once to remove the strap. Rumsey came up, and tried to pull it out, but finding it would not come, stepped back, while Dan was engaged in unbuckling the belt.
" Jerk it off," shouted the robber, "or I'll shoot you in a minute."
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Coach Robberies.
" Give him time," interposed Rumsey : "you'll not kill a man when he's doing all he can for you." "
" Well, hurry up, then, you awkward black- guard. We have no time to lose."
As soon as the belt was loosed, Dan drew forth a large, fringed, buckskin bag containing two sacks, which he handed to Rumsey, who tossed it on the heap.
" That's what we wanted," said the robber. " Now get aboard all of you, and get out of this as fast as you can; and if we ever hear a word from one of you, we'll shoot you on sight."
They obeyed with alacrity. Bunton resumed his seat beside the driver, and commenced whip- ping the horses, observing, as they rode off, that it was the hottest place he was ever in. At a turn in the road, Bunton looked back. The bandits had dismounted. One held the horses ; the other was picking up the plunder, which, in all, amounted to twenty-eight hundred dollars. After gathering up their booty, the robbers gal- loped rapidly over the Indian trail leading to Bannack, arriving there in advance of the coach.
When intelligence of the robbery reached Bannack, public indignation was aroused, but the
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time had not yet arrived for action. Had the robbers been recognized, they would have fared. hard on their return to Bannack, but the people felt that it was better not to strike, than strike at random.
George Hilderman, one of the robber gang, was present at the express-office on the arrival of the coach, seemingly as much surprised as any one at the intelligence of the robbery. His real object, however, was to observe whether the pas- sengers had recognized the ruffians. If so, he was to report it to them, that they might keep out of the way. "Bummer Dan," doubtless, had in his employ some person in the confidence of the robbers ; otherwise, his efforts to avoid them might have been successful.
It was afterwards ascertained that Frank Par- ish and Bob Zachary were the men who com- mitted the robbery. Bill Bunton, being in the secret, aided as much as possible in delaying the coach over-night at Rattlesnake, and supplying it with worn-out horses for the trip from his ranche to Bannack. "Bummer Dan " and Percy recog- nized the robbers, but were restrained by personal fear from exposing them.
No man in this company was more feared by the ruffians than Rumsey. They could not
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frighten him, and no warning of his friends prevented him from fully expressing and venti- lating his opinions concerning them. Nothing would silence his denunciations, but his death ; and this being resolved upon by the robbers, they prepared to improve the opportunity afforded by his return to Virginia City, to accomplish it. It was so late in the day when he arrived at Demp- sey's, that he concluded to pass the night there. Boone Helm, who had been awaiting his appear- ance, met him in the bar-room soon after his arrival, and invited him and other persons present to drink with him. Rumsey drank with the com- pany two or three times. Helm called for more drinks.
" I've had enough," said Rumsey, declining to drink more.
" Take another, take another," said Helm. "It's good to keep the cold out."
" Not another drop," replied Rumsey : "I know my gauge on the liquor question, and never go beyond it."
" You shall drink again," said Helm, with an oath, casting a malicious glance at Rumsey.
"I won't drink again," was the immediate reply, " and no man can make me."
" No man can refuse to drink with me and
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Coach Robberies.
live," replied Helm, seizing his revolver as if to draw it.
Rumsey was too quick for him. Before the desperado could draw his pistol, Rumsey had his levelled at his head. Addressing him in a calm, steady tone, he said, -
" Don't draw your pistol, or I'll shoot you, sure."
The men gazed sternly upon each other for a minute or more, Helm finally loosing his grasp of his pistol, and saying, -
" Well, you're the first man that ever looked me down. Let's be friends."
The courage of Rumsey inspired the robber with a respect for him which probably saved his life, as no further molestation was offered him on his way to Virginia City.
Percy was the proprietor of a bowling alley in Bannack. The roughs, in frequenting his saloon, would leave their horses standing outside the door ; and he had so often seen the animals and accoutrements of each, that he easily recognized the robbers by their horses and saddles. When the coach arrived, Percy saw Frank Parish take Henry Plummer to one side, and engage in con- versation with him. In a few minutes, Plummer came to Percy, and asked him if he knew the robbers. Percy replied, -
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Coach Robberies.
"No; and if I did, I'd not be such a fool as to tell who they were."
Plummer tapped him on the shoulder, and re- plied, -
" You stick to that, Percy, and you'll be all right. There are about seventy-five of the worst desperadoes ever known on the west side of the mountains, in the country, in a band, and I know who they are."
Bunton, after this robbery, used occasionally to accost Percy in a playful manner, with such lan- guage as, "Throw up your hands ; " or, " We were fools to be robbed, weren't we?" Percy, knowing that Bunton was one of the gang, soon tired of this ; and one day at a race-course, when thus saluted, remarked, with unmistakable dis- pleasure, -
" That's played out."
The words were scarcely uttered, when Bunton raised his pistol and fired at him. The ball grazed Percy's ear. Jason Luce, a driver of Mr. Oliver's express, stepped up and said to Bunton, -
" If you want to fight, why don't you take a man of your own size, instead of a smaller one ?"
Later in the day, while intoxicated, Luce called Bunton a coward, in the presence of his brother, Sam Bunton. The latter whipped him severely
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Coach Robberies.
on the spot. Three days later, Luce carried the express to Salt Lake, Sam Bunton following four or five days thereafter. Luce met him at the Salt Lake House.
"We had," said he, addressing him, " a little difficulty in Bannack, and now we'll settle it."
" It's already settled," said Bunton.
" You're a liar," replied Luce, and drawing his knife cut Bunton's throat, killing him on the spot. Luce was arrested, tried, and found guilty of murder. By the Territorial statute of Utah, he was authorized to choose the mode of his exe- cution, from the three forms of hanging, shoot- ing, or beheading. His choice was to be shot, and he was executed in that manner.
Bill Bunton and Sam Bunton were natives of Ohio. Their parents moved to Andrew County, Missouri, in 1839, and thence to Oregon in 1842, when they were respectively sixteen and fourteen years old. The father was a rough, drinking, quarrelsome man, clever, but uneducated.
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Leroy Southmayd.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
LEROY SOUTHMAYD.
ATTACK UPON OLIVER'S COACH -LEROY SOUTHMAYD AND CAPTAIN MOORE ROBBED BY IVES, GRAVES, AND ZACHARY - SOUTHMAYD'S INTERVIEW WITH PLUM- MER, AT BANNACK-GRAVES'S STORY TO CALDWELL - IVES'S BOASTS - ROBBERS FRUSTRATED IN THEIR DESIGNS UPON SOUTIIMAYD ON HIS RETURN TO VIRGINIA CITY.
EARLY in the afternoon of a cold day late in November, 1863, Leroy Southmayd, Captain Moore, and a discharged driver known as " Billy " took passage in Oliver's coach at Virginia City, for Bannack. A ruffian equally well known by the cognomen of "Old Tex " and "Jim Crow " stood near, watching the departing vehicle. As Moore's eyes alighted upon him, he said to Southmayd, -
"I am sorry to see that rascal watching us; he belongs to the gang. It bodes us no good."
" Oh," replied Southmayd, laughing, "I think there's no danger. Robbery has 'played out.' These fellows are beginning to understand that
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Leroy Southmayd.
the people will hold them accountable for their villanies."
Little more was said about it, the conversation turning to more congenial topics. About three o'clock, the coach, which had made slow progress, drove up in front of Lorrain's, eleven miles from town. While Tom Caldwell, the driver, was changing horses, George Ives and Steve Marsh- land rode up, dismounted, and asked if they could procure a change of horses. Having ascertained that they could not do so, they ordered feed for those they had been riding, Ives in the mean time carefully avoiding Southmayd. The company fell into a desultory conversation, which Ives abruptly terminated by remarking that he had heard from " Old Tex."
" He is," said he, " at Cold Spring ranche. I must hasten on and overtake him."
The coach soon departed, and Ives and Marsh- land immediately ordered their horses, and riding rapidly, passed it a short distance below Lorrain's.
Cold Spring ranche was eight miles farther on the stage route. That "Old Tex," who was watching the coach when it left Virginia City, should be there, awaiting the arrival of these two ruffians, occasioned our passengers great uneasi- ness. They knew almost intuitively that a robbery
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Leroy Southmayd.
was in contemplation. When the coach arrived at Cold Spring, the first objects which met their gaze on alighting from it, were the three ruffians Ives, Marshland, and " Old Tex" in close conver- sation.
After a few moments' detention, Caldwell drove on to Point of Rocks, where the passengers remained until morning. Leaving at an early hour, they proceeded to Stone's ranche, and during their brief stay there, Ives, who had been joined by Bob Zachary and William Graves, known as " Whiskey Bill," made a detour, and passed the coach unperceived. The three gentlemanly soli- citors of the road trotted slowly on towards Ban- nack. They were in complete disguise, each one incased in a blanket of green and blue. " Whis- key Bill" wore a silk hat, at that time, perhaps, the only one in the Territory. His sleeves were rolled above the elbows, and his face concealed behind a black silk handkerchief, through the eyelets in which his ferret eyes shone like a couple of stars, in partial eclipse. The gray horse he bestrode was enveloped in a blanket so completely, that only his head, legs, and tail were visible. The horses of his associates were similarly over- spread. Ives was masked with a piece of gray blanket, and Zachary with a remnant of hickory
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Leroy Southmayd.
shirting. No one, unsuspicious of their presence, however familiar with their persons, would have recognized them.
The coach horses moved forward at their usual rapid rate, bringing the passengers in sight of the horsemen a little before eleven o'clock. Their attention was first attracted by the peculiar cos- tume, and the gun which each man held firmly across his saddle-bow. As they approached them more nearly, Southmayd observed to Caldwell, the driver, -
" They're queer-looking beings, Tom, anyhow."
"They're road agents, Leroy ! you may depend upon it," replied Caldwell.
" Well," said Southmayd, " I believe they are, but we can't help ourselves now."
As he said this, the leaders were nearly up with the horsemen. They rapidly wheeled their horses, and presented their guns, -Graves taking in range the head of Caldwell; Ives, that of Southmayd; and Zachary alternately aiming at Moore and Billy.
" Halt !" commanded Ives ; "throw up your hands," and on the instant the arms of every man in the coach were raised.
" Get down, all of you," he added.
All but Southmayd jumped to the ground.
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Leroy Southmayd.
He lingered, with the hope that an opportunity might offer to fire upon them.
" Get down," repeated Ives, adding a senten- tious epithet to the command.
Still hesitating to comply, Ives glanced his eye along his gun-barrel as if to shoot, and in that subdued tone always expressive of desperation, once more issued the command.
Southmayd withstood it no longer, but while making a deliberate descent threw open his coat, thinking that an opportunity might offer for him to use his revolver. Ives, perceiving his object, levelled his gun, and hissed out, in words terribly distinct, -
" If you do that again, I'll kill you !"
The passengers stood with upraised hands by the roadside, under cover of the guns of the rob- bers. Addressing Zachary, Ives said, -
" Get down and look after those fellows."
This was an unwelcome task for Zachary. Villain as he was, Southmayd says that while he was engaged in searching his person, he quivered like an aspen. Throwing Southmayd's pistol and money on the ground, he was about to renew the search, when Billy, tired of the position, dropped his hands.
" Up with your hands again," roared Ives with
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Leroy Southmayd.
an oath, at the same time bringing the terrible muzzles to bear upon the person of the frightened driver. Billy, who felt that it was no time to bandy proprieties, threw them up with more speed than pleasure, realizing that the buck-shot were safer in the barrels than in his luckless carcass.
Zachary now commenced searching Moore, and, taking from his pocket a sack, inquired, -
" Is this all you have ?"
" All I have in the world," replied Moore.
Zachary threw it on the heap and came to Billy.
" Give me your pistol," said he. Billy placed the weapon in his hands.
" Is it loaded ? " inquired Ives.
" No," replied Billy.
" Give it to him again," said Ives to Zachary.
" We don't want any empty weapons."
" My God !" exclaimed Caldwell, as Zachary next approached him. " What do you want of me ? I have nothing."
" Let him alone," said Ives; and addressing Caldwell, he inquired, "Is there anything in the mail we want ?"
" I don't think there is," answered Tom.
Zachary mounted the box, and commenced an examination, but found nothing. Caldwell
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Leroy Southmayd.
scanned the villain narrowly while thus employed, for the purpose, if possible, of recognizing him.
" Don't you do that, if you want to live," said Ives, rattling his gun into dangerous range.
" Well, then," said Tom impudently, "may I look at you ?"
The robber nodded a ready assent, as much as to say, " Find me out, if you can."
The search over, Zachary picked up his gun, and stepped back.
" Get up and skedaddle," said Ives to the plun- dered group. The horses had grown restive while the robbery was progressing, but Tom had restrained them.
" Drive slowly, Tom," said Southmayd to Caldwell in an under-tone, as he ascended the box. " I want to reconnoitre a little," and turned his face to the robbers.
" Drive on," shouted Ives.
Southmayd still continued looking at the rob- bers as the coach departed, which Ives observing, the villain raised his gun, and yelled, -
" If you don't turn around and mind your busi- ness, I'll shoot the top of your head off."
The three robbers then stood together, watch- ing the coach until it was lost to their view.
" By George !" said Leroy, laughing, " I looked
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down into those gun-barrels so long that I thought I fairly saw the buckshot leap from their imprisonment. It would have afforded me pleas- ure to squander the bullets in my pistol, on the scoundrel."
Southmayd lost four hundred dollars in gold, and Captain Moore one hundred dollars in treas- ury notes. As was usual, quite a large number of people were awaiting the arrival of the coach, when it drove up to the express-office at Bannack. Inquiries were immediately made as to the cause of its detention so much later than common.
" Was the coach robbed to-day ?" inquired Plummer of Southmayd, as he jumped from the box.
" It was," replied Leroy, taking him by the arm, and by his confidential manner signifying that he was about to impart to him, as sheriff, all he knew about it. Just at this moment, Dr. Bis- sell, the miners' judge at Virginia City, gave Southmayd a slight nudge, and catching his eye, winked significantly for him to step aside.
"Be careful, Leroy, - very careful what you say to that man."
Leroy gave an appreciative nod, and rejoined Plummer.
"So you have been robbed," said the latter.
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Leroy Southmayd.
"I'm not surprised, - and I think I can tell you who were the robbers."
" Who were they ? " eagerly asked Southmayd.
" George Ives was one of them," said Plummer.
"Yes," responded Southmayd, " and the others were ' Whiskey Bill' and Bob Zachary ; and I'll live to see them hanged before three weeks."
Southmayd did not know that Plummer's ac- cusation was made for the purpose of detecting his knowledge of the robbers. Bissell, who had overheard Southmayd's revelation to Plummer, said to him soon after, -
" Leroy, your life isn't worth a cel.t."
George Crisman, who was standing by, added, - " They'll kill you sure."
Business detained Southmayd in Bannack the succeeding three days. During that time he never met Plummer, who left him immediately after they held the conversation above narrated.
Two day afterwards, while on his way to Vir- ginia City, Caldwell, the driver, met with " Whis- key Bill " at the Cold Spring ranche.
" Did you hear of the robbery, Bill, on my trip out ?" he inquired.
" Sure, I did, Tom," replied Bill. " Do you know any of the fellows who committed it ?"
" Not I," replied Caldwell, " and I wouldn't
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Leroy Southmayd.
for the world. If I did, and told of them, I shouldn't live long."
" That's so, Tom," rejoined Graves. "You wouldn't live twenty-four hours. It's always best to be ignorant in matters of that kind. I've had experience, and I know. I'll just tell you, by way of illustration, about my being robbed in Califor- nia. One night as my partner and I were riding along, two fellows rode up and told us to throw up our hands. We did so, and they took from us two thousand dollars in coin. I said to 'em, ' Boys, it's pretty rough to take all we've got.' They said so it was, and gave us back forty dol- lars. A week afterwards I saw 'em dealing faro. One of 'em saw me looking at him, and arose and came up to me, and said in a whisper, 'Ain't you one of the men that was robbed the other night ?' -' Not at all,' says I, for I thought if I said ' yes' he would find a way to put me out of the way. 'Oh, well,' says he, 'honor bright! I want you to own up. I know you're the man. Now, I'm going to give you four thousand dollars, just for keeping your mouth shut.' And he kept his promise. So you see, Tom, that I saved my life, and got four thousand dollars for keeping still."
Tom wished somebody would treat him so, but
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when telling the story, said that he "lacked confidence in human nature, especially where the road agents were concerned." He even ventured the assertion that he "did not believe Graves's story, anyway."
Ives went to Virginia City the day following the robbery. While in a state of intoxication at one of the fancy establishments, he boasted openly of having made Tom Caldwell throw up his hands, and that he intended to do it again. Talking of the robbery with one of the drivers, he said, -
"I am the Bamboo chief that committed that robbery."
"Don't you believe Caldwell knows it?" inquired the driver.
" Certainly he knows it," replied Ives. " He recognized me at once."
As Ives and the driver were riding side by side into Virginia City, on their return from Nevada, the driver saw Caldwell approaching. He mo- tioned him to keep away. Caldwell turned and went away, and was afterwards told that Ives knew he had recognized him in the robbery, and would probably kill him on sight. The driver, who expected that Ives would shoot at Caldwell, had his revolver in readiness to shoot him at the
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