I must own, though, that I
didn't know quite as much at the time I speak of. The driver whose place
I took when I came on to the road, had been pretty badly used up in a
scrimmage with the bandits about a week before, and I didn't like the
prospects, you may be sure; but as I was out of a job, I took this, and
I made up my mind when I I commenced, never to put my head in the way
of a robber's bullet, if I could help it."
"That's the case with most of you, isn't it?" said Manning,
good-naturedly.
"What makes you think so?" inquired the driver, quizzically.
"Why, the ease and success with which stage coaches have usually been
robbed," was the reply.
"Well, I'll tell you," he answered, good-humoredly, and not the least
disturbed by Manning's quiet reflection on the bravery of stage drivers
in general. "When a fellow has to manage four tolerably skittish horses
with both hands full of leather, he haint much time to fool around
huntin' shootin' irons, 'specially when he's got to look down into the
muzzle of a repeater which is likely to go off and hurt somebody."
"Do you think these stage robbers, as a rule, are disposed to kill
anybody?" asked Manning.
"Why, sir," answered the driver, "they would just as soon kill a stage
driver as eat their breakfast, and they know how to handle a rifle,
too, let me tell you.
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