He had fallen or sprung from his seat.
"The -- -- coward!" thought Wickersham.

"He is running." The next second there was a report of a pistol close beside the stage, and the man in the road at the horses' heads fired again.

Another report, and Keith dashed forward into the light of the lantern and charged straight at the robber, who fired once more, and then, when Keith was within ten feet of him, turned and sprang over the edge of the road into the thick bushes below.

Keith sprang straight after him, and the two went crashing through the underbrush, down the steep side of the hill.
The inmates of the stage poured out into the road, all talking together, and Wickersham, with the aid of Jake Dennison, succeeded in quieting the horses.

The noise of the flight and the pursuit had now grown more distant, but once more several shots were heard, deep down in the woods, and then even they ceased.
It had all happened so quickly that the passengers had seen nothing.
They demanded of Wickersham how many robbers there were.