_The Captured Ruffians are desired for Guides, but dare not join in
the Search for the Outlaws.--One of the Robbers is Taken, but
subsequently Escapes from the Amateur Detectives.--Another
Clue suddenly Fails._
Having searched the whole place, and satisfied himself that the men
captured had had no connection with the robbery or the robbers, William
offered them one hundred dollars to act as guides through the cane-brake
to arrest Barton and Russell. They said they could not if they would,
since no man could find his way there in broad daylight, much less at
night. They further admitted that they dare not attempt it, as Russell
would kill them if they learned of their action. It was now pitch dark,
and after a vain attempt to beat through the cane in search of the
fugitives, William decided to return to Mr. Merrick's until next day.
The next morning at daybreak he started back for Lester's, accompanied
by a number of the cane-brake population, all of whom were anxious to
secure the one hundred dollars reward. They had long suspected the men
at the store of being desperadoes, but they had had a wholesome fear of
them on account of their fierce ways and their reckless habit of drawing
their revolvers on slight provocation.
On arriving at Lester's, the party found that Lester had returned from
Hickman during the night. He was a treacherous-looking scoundrel, and
his reputation was bad, although he had never been caught in any crime
in that vicinity. His name, John Wesley Lester, showed that he must have
once belonged to a pious Methodist family, and, indeed, he claimed to
have once been a Methodist preacher himself. He had sunken eyes, milky
white, and his hair was lank and long; his complexion was dark, cheeks
hollow, chin pointed, and forehead low. His manner was fawning and
obsequious to those above him, and he looked and acted like a second
"Uriah Heap." He pretended to know nothing of Russell, Clark, and
Barton, except that they had come to his place in July, built the store
there, and had been around the landing more or less ever since. He said
that he knew nothing against them, except that they were gamblers, and
that they often went off on gambling excursions, during one of which,
according to their own statements, they had killed a man in a quarrel.
William learned from Lester's daughter that Barton had returned during
the night to get a shawl, blanket, and two shot-guns. He had told her
that Russell was hurt pretty badly, but that they intended to take the
first packet down the river. From other parties William learned that the
packet Julia had passed down during the night, and had stopped at a
point about seven miles below, having been hailed from the bank. He did
not place much faith in the theory that the men had taken passage by the
Julia, for the reason that Lester's girl was too anxious to tell the
story of the route Barton proposed taking. He discovered that Barton had
been paying lover-like attentions to the girl, and he believed that
Barton had instructed her to say that he intended taking the next
packet, in order to give them a false scent. Having set the men of the
neighborhood at work searching for Russell and Barton, William returned
to Union City.
From Hickman Connell was sent to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to capture
Clark, who was said to have gone there three days before.
On the arrival of William in Union City, the superintendent telegraphed
to me the result of William's visit to Lester's Landing, and authorized
me to send an operative to Farmington, Illinois, to hunt up Mrs. Kate
Graham, and learn what she could tell about Russell, Clark, and Barton.
A man was sent there the next day, and he had no difficulty in finding
Mrs. Graham, who proved to be the wife of a highly respectable business
man. She was a member of the church, and was held in high esteem by
every one acquainted with her. My agent, therefore, called upon her
without any circumlocution or deception, and asked to see her on
business. She was confined to her room by illness, but she saw him for a
few minutes, and answered his questions so frankly that there was no
doubt she was telling the truth. She stated that she was not acquainted
with any one living at Lester's Landing; that she did not know, nor ever
had known, any persons of the names given (Russell, Clark, and Barton);
and that she knew no one who would answer to their descriptions. This
clue seemed to come to an end very quickly, yet it afterward proved to
be the means by which we captured one of the gang, and it was a striking
instance of the necessity for the most careful and minute inquiry upon
every point of news obtained, especially upon those received directly
from the criminals themselves.
On the 3d of November, Connell went with a constable to the house of
Mrs. Gully, the mother of Clark's companion, Mrs. Slaughter, and there
he found them both. Clark was surprised by the officers, but he made a
bold fight, and was overpowered with difficulty. When finally handcuffed
and searched, a navy revolver and fifty dollars in money were taken
from him; he was then taken nine miles on horseback to Cape Girardeau,
where Connell obtained a light wagon to drive sixteen miles to
Allenville, on the railroad leading to Hickman. On this trip Connell
made the mistake of trusting to handcuffs alone, instead of securely
fastening his prisoner's feet with rope. The idea that one man in
handcuffs could escape from two active, unimpeded men did not, however,
occur to Connell, and so the constable drove the horse, while Clark and
Connell occupied the back seat. In justice to Connell, it should be
stated that he had been constantly in the saddle for several days in raw
and rainy weather, and had had very little sleep for two nights
previous.
About nine o'clock in the evening, when only a mile from Allenville,
Clark suddenly made a leap out of the wagon. The horse was jogging along
at a good trot, and, though Connell sprang after his prisoner instantly,
it was a couple of minutes before the constable could follow. As he ran,
Connell fired at the dim figure disappearing in the thick brush; but the
next instant he pitched headlong into a deep mud-hole, and, by the time
he got out, the cylinder of his revolver was choked with mud, and Clark
was far in advance. The chase was kept up as long as the pursuers were
able to distinguish the direction of his flight, but, in the darkness of
the gloomy woods, it was impossible to follow an athletic fellow like
Clark with any hope of success. Connell returned to Union City very
much crestfallen, and reported his misfortune. My first feeling, on
learning the news, was one of deep regret and anxiety at the loss of one
of the leaders of the gang; my second thought was one of profound
thankfulness that my men were in no way responsible for it. The
situation was an illustration of the disappointments and difficulties
which are so often met in a detective's experience; and, though I felt
somewhat discouraged, I was more than ever determined that none of these
men should eventually escape, even though it should be necessary to
follow them for months.
The desire of the express company to employ as few as possible of my
operatives embarrassed me exceedingly, for William was obliged to depend
upon strangers, and he had little confidence in their ability or
discretion. He was now satisfied of the identity of the parties he was
in search of, and all that he needed was a small force of experienced
and reliable men.
Had I been limited and interfered with in the Maroney case, described in
"The Expressman and the Detective," as I was in this, there is no doubt
that I might have failed to capture the criminal; but the cordial
cooeperation and support of the Adams Express Company gave me a fair
opportunity to work to good advantage, and victory was the result.