“The cylinder-heads were almost opposite a high rock at the turns.  Well, when we got there, what do you think we saw?  Not a hundred yards ahead of the mouth of the canon, and as plain as day in the moonlight, was a pile of rocks on the track.  On either side was a bunch of half a dozen masked men, with Winchester rifles half raised.  Ten rods further on were a dozen or more horses picketed at a few cottonwood trees.

“Well, you bet your life we couldn’t get back to that train too quick.  It was not midnight, and in two minutes we had the crew and passengers out with enough guns and revolvers to furnish the Chinese army.  Passengers, in those days, and in that country, carried guns.  When the robbers saw that the train had stopped they started forward, to be met by a rattling fire.  One of them dropped, but the rest ran for their horses and got away.

“Now, then, you can’t tell me that there isn’t something in an engine besides machinery,” concluded the engineer, as he turned to the other members of the Roundhouse Club.

“The man who says there isn’t, is a fool,” was the answer from one, and the others nodded their heads in approval.

CHAPTER XVII.

A RAILROAD TO THE CLOUDS.

Early History of Manitou—­Zebulon Pike’s Important Discovery—­A Young Medicine Man’s Peril and Final Triumph—­A Health Resort in Years Gone By—­The Garden of the Gods—­The Railroad up Pike’s Peak—­Early Failures and Final Success—­The Most Remarkable Road in the World—­Riding Above the Clouds.

Manitou is a name which conjures up reminiscences of legend and history, and it also reminds the traveler of some of the most remarkable scenes of the Rocky Mountains.  It has been said that the man who knows how to appreciate natural grandeur and beauty, can spend six months in the vicinity of Manitou, and then come back six month later to find undiscovered joys and treasures of beauty on every side.

The earliest reliable records concerning this spot date back to the year 1806, when Major Zebulon Pike discovered what he called the Great Snow Mountain.  This, one of the loftiest of the Rockies, is now known as Pike’s Peak after its discoverer, or at any rate after the man who first described it for the benefit of the public.

It is on record that when Major Pike was crossing Colorado, nearly a hundred years ago, he saw on the horizon what he regarded as a misty cloud.  When he finally realized that there was a mountain in front of him, he was at least a hundred miles away from it, and there were two or three smaller hills to be crossed before reaching it.  After marching for over a week the party reached the Cheyenne Mountain, which they believed was the ascent of the great peak, a theory which was soon disproved.  Manitou is at the foot of this great mountain.  It was first described at length by an English tourist who visited the Manitou Springs just half a century ago.  He traveled alone, and exhibited not only an immense amount of bravery, but also unlimited judgment in evading the attacks of wild beasts and equally savage Indians.