The first victims of Lewis were the country banks, but recently established and whose bank notes were easy to counterfeit. Lewis was quick to make the most of this condition. He journeyed to Vermont and there made enormous quantities of spurious bank bills, purporting to have been issued from banks in Philadelphia and various Pennsylvania towns. These were successfully passed in New York. Lewis was captured and committed to jail at Troy, from which he soon escaped, with the assistance of the jailer’s daughter, who fled with him and became his wife. His devotion to her was so genuine that it is strange her influence did not prove sufficient for him to have become a valuable member of society instead of one of the worst criminals on record. Lewis was a man of unusual physical strength, handsome, and possessed a most pleasing personality. He was conscious of that fact, and made many friends, not in crime, but those who would aid him in making escape or give him timely warning. The story is told of Nicholas Howard, a prominent landlord near Doubling Gap, who would display a flag from a certain upper window when the coast was clear, and Lewis was thus advised of the movements of the officers seeking his apprehension. Food was often carried to him in his hiding place by those who never suspected they were befriending an outlaw. A Mr. Black, of Cumberland, Md., related a personal adventure with Lewis in the Allegheny Mountains. Black had crossed the mountain on horseback to Brownsville, where he collected a large sum of money. He rode a speedy black horse. While in Brownsville he won another horse in a race and the following day started home, riding the new horse, leading his own “Blacky.” In a lonely ravine a man suddenly appeared and jumped on Blacky’s back and rode alongside Black and began to barter for the horse. The horse was not for sale and they rode together until a spring was reached, where they dismounted and quenched their thirst and ate a bite and drank some peach brandy. By the time a second spring was reached Black and his new-found companion were on intimate terms. The stranger asked Black if he had ever seen Lewis, about whom there was so much fear and excitement. He replied that he had not. “Well, sir,” replied the stranger, jumping to his feet, “here is Lewis—I am the man.” Black further stated that Lewis told him he had seen the race in Brownsville and knew he had collected much money there, and that he had preceded him to waylay and rob him, but that Black had treated him like a gentleman and he would not harm him or take a cent from his pocket.