His consent given, the oldest of the Younger brothers returned for his chief and soon they were in the house while their weary horses were contentedly munching bounteous feeds of corn and oats in the barn. When Jesse had put Clell to bed and made pecuniary arrangements that were entirely satisfactory to the avaricious Snuffer, for his care, he rejoined Jim and John in the kitchen. "This _is luck_, finding you boys here," he declared as he lighted his pipe. "Now we can carry out my plans without delay. I was afraid, after Clell was knocked out, that it might take some time to round any of you up. But your being here enables us to start to-night." Delighted at the prospect of once again participating in the wild deeds of their idol, John and Jim eagerly asked his plans. But with a nod toward their uncle, the great outlaw bade them wait till they were on the way. Realizing the wisdom of not letting the miser know too much, they fell to exchanging their experiences since they last had met, a diversion that kept them engaged during supper and till well into the evening. Back in the woods around Brett's cabin, the man-hunters were riding hither, thither and yon, beating the underbrush for the outlaws who had escaped them and searching the ground for the hoof prints of their horses that they might learn in what direction their quarry had disappeared. But the falling twilight made the task fruitless. When Higgins and his fellows had been guided to the hut, they hastily stationed the members of the posse in the woods surrounding the cabin that they might not be in sight as the expected bandits arrived, yet in such positions that they could pour a deadly hail of bullets into both them and their horses. But before his neighbours scattered to take their places, the grizzled farmer exclaimed: "I want my hundred. I got you hyar afore the outlaws an' I want it now so's I'll be sure to git it. You may not be alive to give it to me after they git hyar." This none too cheerful suggestion did not make the offerer of the bonus any more eager to pay it, especially as the affair had not turned out in the manner he had outlined to his companions as they crossed the fields, and he tried to hedge. But the guide was not to be denied. "If you don't fork it over an' right off, I'll ride into the woods yellin' to Jesse James to look out," he threatened. Confronted by such a contingency, Higgins had no recourse but to pay, which he did forthwith. As minute after minute went by without either sight or sound of the desperadoes, the man-hunters in the underbrush began to grow restive and talked among themselves. Freely was the opinion expressed by those of them who were old hunters that their quarry had either been scared off by the hails of the detectives or had never intended to hide in the lonely cabin.