Nothing happened, however, with the exception of one trip, where he saved
the coach and the lives of all in it by a daring rush through a stream in
the face of a party of Indians. But shortly after this he was told by the
division superintendent, as he left Fort Kearny, that in the coach was a
very large amount of money being sent in a box to Plum Creek. It was a
question whether the existence of this treasure had become known or not.
At any rate, Cody said he would be on the watch. First, before mounting on
the box, he looked over the passengers--and here again was the same habit
of looking at everything and everybody that might have any relation to the
situation. He did not like the looks of two of the passengers, and as the
conductor, who always traveled with the driver on the trip, was suddenly
prevented from going, his suspicions became keener.
Again the keen boy decided that the thing to do was to take time by the
forelock. He had proceeded only a part of the distance after all but the
two passengers had left when he pulled up the coach and got down as if to
examine the running gear. Then he asked the two men to help him. As they
started to come out of the coach Cody pointed two revolvers at them and
held them up in the most approved fashion. He made them throw out their
revolvers, then bound them and put them back in the coach.
Something that one of the men had said made him think that they were part
of a gang, the other members of which were somewhere in ambush along the
trail. On reaching the first relay station he deposited his prisoners with
the agent and then started on.
There were no other passengers. He had no sooner gotten away from the
station than, stopping again, he cut open one of the cushions of the
coach, and taking the money from the box, put it inside the cushions and
then patched up the opening. After that he remounted the box and rode on.
Within an hour, while driving through a bit of timber, the expected
happened. The coach was held up by half a dozen men. They started to look
for the treasure. Cody told them a long story of two men who had been
riding as passengers, who had held him up in a lonely spot, taken the
treasure, and disappeared into the timber. The gang immediately recognized
their confederates, and in a fury at being thus deceived, they waited only
long enough to ask him if they were mounted. On receiving an answer that
they were not and also a description of the direction they had taken, the
highwaymen left him in peace and rode in hot haste after their
confederates.
And the driver of the overland stage finished his journey and deposited
the treasure into the hands that it was intended for.
V
THE INDIAN CAMPAIGNS WITH THE ARMY
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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