The Serenade at Siskiyou by Owen Wister — Read

Unskilled at murder and without training in running away, one of the two Healy boys had been caught with ease soon after their crime. What they had done may be best learned in the following extract from a certain official report:

"The stage was within five miles of its destination when it / was confronted by the usual apparition of a masked man / levelling a double-barrelled shot-gun at the driver, and the / order to 'Pull up, and throw out the express box. ' The driver / promptly complied. Meanwhile the guard, Buck Montgomery, who / occupied a seat inside, from which he caught a glimpse of / what was going on, opened fire at the robber, who dropped to / his knees at the first shot, but a moment later discharged / both barrels of his gun at the stage. The driver dropped from / his seat to the foot-board with five buckshot in his right / leg near the knee, and two in his left leg; a passenger by / his side also dropped with three or four buckshot in his / legs. Before the guard could reload, two shots came from / behind the bushes back of the exposed robber, and Buck fell / to the bottom of the stage mortally wounded -- shot through the / back. The whole murderous sally occupied but a few seconds, / and the order came to 'Drive on. ' Officers and citizens / quickly started in pursuit, and the next day one of the / robbers, a well-known young man of that vicinity, son of a / respectable farmer in Fresno County, was overtaken and / arrested."