An hour or two later the bandits seem to have lost their road, for they
called at the house of a farmer named Sager, and demanded a horse, saying
they were after horse thieves. Sager is a prudent German, and required to
see their authority. They laughed at him and secured his horse, but on
attempting to mount him, they found him balky, and were obliged to abandon
their plan. They then forced the farmer to accompany them quite a distance
to point out the road, first asking the route to Waterville, but finally
deciding to take the Cordova road. Sager went with them to the edge of the
town of Kilkenny, and left them in a large meadow going towards Cordova.
In this field the bandits resorted to all known means to destroy their
tracks, and esconced themselves in the mysterious depths of the Big Woods,
where it was impossible to track them, as the thousands of hogs which root
up their living there, had almost entirely displaced the sod, and it was
not an easy matter to distinguish the footprints of man or beast.
Many have the impression that the bandits were sheltered Thursday night by
a notorious character living in the woods on the west side of Kilkenny,
but according to the statement of those captured, they lay hidden in the
thickets.