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road agent

An outlaw specializing in robbing travelers along highways, roads and trails. Also known as a highwayman.[1]

The Long Hunt: In February of 1877,[2] Bret Maverick met Lefty Dolan[3] along the Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage route.[2] Dolan was lying in ambush upon a ledge over the trail to rob the next stage coach when Bret fell off his horse into the bushes below. Bret was being chased by six men and had his horse spooked out from under him by a gunshot. Dolan assumed the men chasing Bret was a posse and Bret himself was a fellow road agent. Dolan, believing he was doing a brother-in-arms a favor, shot back at the men and chased them off. Bret and Dolan became friends, and Dolan agreed not to rob the next stage as he had planned. Instead, he accepted $30 cash from Bret as payment for saving his life, with the promise of a new horse and outfit at the end of the line, and he bought his ticket on the stage like a law-abiding citizen. However, the stage was held up by two other road agents a ways down the trail. Dolan shot at one and received a mortal shot in return. As Dolan died, he made Bret promise to do whatever he could to get Jedd Ferris, an innocent man serving a life sentence for a crime Dolan had committed, freed from prison.[3]