"We had been there only a few minutes when the up train came along; she stopped and backed down a little ways, when all the train hands left her and went to supper. Hillary and Taylor then boarded the engine, and Levi and myself jumped aboard the express car. The messenger was eating his supper when we went in, and, seeing Levi point a Derringer at him, he exclaimed: 'Don't shoot me! I will surrender.' Levi compelled him to unlock the safe, and we took all the money. Levi then swung the messenger's lantern, and the train stopped, when we all jumped off and started down the railroad to Hickman. Our intention was to go to the wood-yard near Union City, and steal a ride on a freight train to Hickman. We hid under the platform at the wood-yard, and while there Levi accidentally shot himself in the thigh; but the wound was very slight, and it hardly interfered with his walking. As the freight train did not stop, we were obliged to walk to Hickman, where we arrived Sunday night. We had had some provisions when we first camped out, which Bill Taylor had carried in a valise; but he had left the valise and all its contents on the engine, so that we had very little to eat. "While in the woods we divided the money, but Levi, who carried it, showed up only twenty three hundred dollars. "Sunday night we stole a skiff in Hickman and went down the river to James' Bayou, and while there, on Monday morning, we saw Messenger Cross, whose car had been robbed, making inquiries about us in a grocery-store. We then started off on foot, going down the river on the Missouri shore. About a mile below James' Bayou we found the skiff which we had previously set adrift, and which had evidently been picked up by some one. Taking this skiff again, Hillary, Taylor, and I dropped down to a point about a mile above Lester's, leaving Levi on the Missouri shore, where we started from. We landed on the Tennessee shore, and walked down the river road a short distance, when Taylor left us, remaining in the woods. Hillary and I met Lester on the road soon afterward, and told him that we had come down on a steamboat which was then tied up, on account of the heavy fog. Levi arrived next day, having come across the river with a fisherman. "The following Sunday, October 29, Hillary left on a steamboat, taking with him a woman named Slaughter, with whom he said he was going to Davidson's wood-yard, nine miles above Cape Girardeau. He expected to return in a few days. "The next thing of any importance which occurred was on the Tuesday night following, when Messrs. Pinkerton and Connell rode up to Lester's house. At the first glance, I thought they were officers, and Levi told me that he thought the same. I saw him pull his pistol out of his pocket before getting out of his chair." [The moment Connell opened the door, Levi knew that he was a detective, having seen him acting in that capacity in Memphis, when Hillary was arrested for horse-stealing the previous spring.]