SHORT STORY.

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume V, Issue 1440, 26 September 1905, Page 4

SHORT STORY.

||""M llp!" ' '' " Holding-lip" a Railway train in the Far West "Halt l Hands up 1" Tims and tho railway men on th® ■ Southern Pacifio, Mexican Genual, banta F6, ot any of the other lines which thread their way over ,tbo wido wastes ot " No Mao's Land," on the borders of the great Mojave Deaect, have hstonml to the haish ' tOQ6s of an outlaw chief, as, with a strong •v ; gans! of dare devils as reckless as himself, he atieiup'S to" hold up 1 the train, ni.d rob passenger and railw <y company of any valuables which they ni iy have in transit. Train-wrecking is the fiwranto g tmo of the bandits who frequent the out-of-the-way wilds of Arizona, New Mexico, and • Sou'hem California, Scarcely a week ■ passes even now without some flagrant - outrage is reported, and in spits of everything the American and State Governmoms oando to waylay the robber?, those modern Knights of the Railway frequently sf-r , : escape wot freo from the scene of operations, oarrying with them a spoil-worth ■ many thousands of dollars as a result of iheir nefarious work. In 1896, for instance, a Western desperado nauatd Tom Brady,eSuCceeded in robbing an express ' car on the Southorn Paoificof something like 30,000 dollars, Again, last yoar, another haSl was made, in which the robbers gftinetl plunder worth at least ft thousand pounds, and only a few weeks ago a rieh American busine?s man, traveling un the Mexican Central] was " beld up to tna tune of several hundreds in gold and notes. The usual method of robbing ajnin is by'plaoing a largo log or sleeper on tho rail*, a hundred yards or more from a curve in the track. As soon as tho engine driver sights the obstaele he slows up. , Then comes the quick word of command mentioned at tho beginning of this article, and, almost before tho iinfor>u"aie travellers are aware of anything wrong, a dozon , or more rifle barrels' are covering them k thsm.from the littlo plot oi furze or brushwood near the halting place. Then, while a few of the robbers clear away tho I* • • timber on the line, others busy un* ' coupling the engine. When this is done ' " 'the driver is compelled to run his engine a short distance frou 1 tho cars, while the l-)- . passongers are politely requested to alight and hand over any cash or ariicles of value they may posses'. Sometime?, of course, both train hands and passengers attempt to resist, and many a desperate conflict has taken plaoo during these foraye, in which the thieves do not always ' come out on top; but, as a rule discretion is' shown to be the better part part of valour, and both patties—tho "sheep" and their" shearers" —are anxious to get tho " business" ovor. ■ la many instances tho express c«.r is the one point-upon which the efforts oi tho wreokera we concentrated, In this car there is usually a large quantity of specie < and bnltion in transit between tho great ' ; banks of the East and Wcsti or, again, an nmwnally heavy consignment of jewellery 1 18 being oarried from point to point, Seated within the car, heavily armed, is the s " express messenger," whoso duty it is to guard the car and its oontnuts; and as 1 these men are usually brave and deter- . mined fellows,it often follows that.the : robbers are baffled in their attempt to force an opening, To attack attain in broad daylight, even wiih a strong force . ,; of criminals at one's beck and call, is not ' ■ the easiest task in tho catalogue of crime; but the value of the spoil and tho lonoliness of the surroundings, together with the fact that, the wreckers are men who ■■ fear neither God, man, nor devil, is probu* > bly iho reason why there aroso maiiy outrages of the kind year after year.