The Nine-Mile Hold-Up 



The poor soldiers thought he had surely pronounced 

 their death sentence, and yelled: 



" Don't shoot, Massas, don't shoot. Put 'em up, 

 Lieutenant, for God's sake; put up your hands, or we're 

 all dead men." 



But the Lieutenant's wound was hurting him and he 

 was obstinate. He sat there rubbing his leg. The 

 soldiers begged and implored him to put up his hands. 

 He would not do it. Gradually the voices among the 

 rocks grew fainter, until only a low humming sound 

 reached the ears of the terrified victims below. Then 

 it began to dawn on all that they had not yet been blown 

 up for the Lieutenant's defiant attitude, neither had it 

 brought out fresh expletives from the brigands behind 

 the boulders. One after another they dropped their 

 tired arms. 



There was a sudden exclamation from the Lieutenant : 

 " Why, hang it all, boys, those are talking-machines 

 up in the rocks there ! They've said the same words 

 the same way for twenty minutes. We've been nicely 

 fooled, we have. All up ! Fall in ! Help me to the 

 wagon, sergeant. Now, my men, go up into those rocks, 

 and you'll see I'm right. Sergeant, don't fool with any 

 electrical apparatus or we may get blown up yet." 



The men obeyed and found our friends' stronghold 

 just as they had left it. They did not fool with the 

 switchboard, but just cut the wires and let it go at that. 



In a few minutes the Lieutenant despatched a detail 

 of men afoot to the Post and another to the nearest 

 ranch for horses, a surgeon, and a troop with which to 

 chase the robbers. The detail sent to the Post met 

 within an hour a mounted squad riding hard towards 

 the scene of the hold-up. A ranger in the vicinity had 

 heard the explosions and had telephoned the Post of the 

 disturbance off towards the south, which had sent troops 



