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Show 196 TALES OF THE COLORADO PIONEERS. been watching and waiting for me.' It was enough to make anybody feel glad just to see him and hear him talk. " When we started the next morning his heart was full of joy, and he was cracking jokes and making the crowd merry. About three o'clock in the afternoon we reached a little stream that was heavily wooded, when several men, with their revolvers cocked, rushed out of the underbrush and commanded a halt. " They compelled Bob to throw up his hands, and commenced searching his pockets. He had his dust in a buckskin vest worn under his clothing-there was ten thousand dollars in it. " When the robbers found it, Bob sprang to.his feet and said, ' I have worked for that money with the hope of marrying the girl I love; if you take it, you will destroy my happiness forever.' "' We'll destroy you if you don't hand it over.' '"I'll never do it,' said Bob. " Whereupon they blew his brains out. One searched him while the others stood with their pistols drawn on me and the other passengers. " After getting the vest they put spurs to their horses and were soon out of sight. To this day no trace of them has been found. Poor Bob, the villians had spotted him. I never drove over that road again; couldn't stand to pass the place." The driver's voice grew husky, and his eye moist-I swallowed a profusion of chokes. Suddenly the horse to the right gave a plunge, and the driver gracefully curled his whip over his head and brought it down upon the flank of the refractory animal. |