area of uncut timber, full of dense thickets and ravines, and abounding in lakes, streams and swamps. The weather made difficult trailing, as tracks and other signs were soon obliterated; and the nature and extent of the ground to be covered rendered it impossible to keep the picket-line strong at all points. The rain and the mud, the dripping forests, the swollen streams, the softened fields, multiplied the hardships of the pursuers. Their very numbers caused confusion. They were for the most part unable to recognize with any certainty either the robbers or one another or to tell whether some squad of horsemen in the distance were friends or foe. The bandits were shrewd enough to take advantage of this doubt. It was their favorite trick to pass themselves off as a sheriff’s posse in pursuit of the bank-robbers. Under this subterfuge they inquired their way of unsuspecting people, obtained provisions, secured information about the position and movements of their pursuers, and repeatedly supplied themselves with fresh horses. But this is in advance of our story. We left the robbers in their Thursday night’s hiding-place in the woods beyond Shieldsville. Thence on Friday they moved first westward and then southwestward, in the direction of Waterville. Coming to a ford of the Little Cannon River, guarded by three men poorly armed, they were fired upon and turned back into the woods. Finding shortly afterward that the guard had withdrawn, they returned to the ford, crossed over, and disappeared in the forest beyond. Thus the picket line which had been so laboriously posted was broken at its weakest point. The news of the escape was immediately carried to those in command, a new picket-line was thrown out in advance of the robbers, and the pursuer pressed the more eagerly after them. The whole region was now aroused. The telegraph was kept constantly busy, flashing items of fact, and a good many items of fiction, to and from the field of operations. The railways did good service in transporting men to accessible points; but the flight and the pursuit were chiefly out of the range of towns, telegraphs or railways, in the heart of the forest. Pushing on into the township of Elysian, the robbers found themselves in a labyrinth of lakes and swamps, where it seemed easy to prevent their escape. At an isolated farm they exchanged two of their exhausted horses for fresh ones, against the owner’s protest. In the evening they made a similar exchange in an out-of-the-way pasture without consulting the owner. Late Friday night they went into camp between Elysian and Gentian Lake. The stolen horses were now turned loose, and all returned to their masters. The remaining horses were tied to trees; a sort of tent was made by spreading blankets over some bushes; and under this the fugitives spent the rainy night.