Identifier: borderbanditsaut00buel (find matches)
Title: The border bandits : an authentic and thrilling history of the noted outlaws, Jesse and Frank James, and their bands of highwaymen : compiled from reliable sources only and containing the latest facts in regard to these desperate freebooters
Year: 1881 (1880s)
Authors: Buel, James W. (James William), 1849-1920
Subjects: James, Jesse, 1847-1882 James, Frank, 1844-1915
Publisher: St. Louis, Mo. : Historical Publishing Company
Contributing Library: University of Connecticut Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Connecticut Libraries

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safety, where they disappeared. THE MYSTERIOUS HIDING PLACE INJACKSON COUNTY. In perusing books and newspaper articles record-ing the adventures of the James and Younger boys,the reader must have been impressed with the some-what singular assertion that pursuit of the banditsgenerally ended by their sudden disappearance inJackson county, Missouri. I will confess that I haveoften wondered how it was possible for a body ofmen to mysteriously disappear in a certain localityand thereby end a close pursuit. A gentleman whohas been intimate with the James Boys for a periodof nearly twenty years and with whom I am inti-mately acquainted, volunteered to me the long-wished-for information, which he gave as follows,omitting only the exact location. I will use his ownwords as nearly as possible: You know,said he, that Jackson county is oneof the most rugged and broken districts in Missouri;it not only abounds with bluffs, but also, in at leasta few places, with almost impenetrable thickets, fit
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ROMANTIC SCENERY NEAR THE MYSTrlRIOUS CAVE. JESSE AND FRANK JAMES. 45 only for the abode of catamounts and foxes. Oneday I was riding through Jackson county, I will nottell you where, when suddenly I was confronted byFrank James. He greeted me cordially and then said ; , I have every confidence in you and I know you would not betray us to save your rightarm; therefore I invite you to our retreat; comewith me ! * I followed him in a bridle path for nearlya mile, when we came to a precipitous bluff, the baseof which was completely hidden by a thick growth.There was an entrance between the growth and bluff,where any one would least suspect it, because, at themouth are two bold rocks, which are apparently at-tached to the bluff itself; this delusion is accom-plished by keeping the interstices filled with freshbrush so laid as to appear like a natural coppice.This pa-ssage-way leads about fifty feet, to a largefissure in the side of the bluff, resembling a vestibule;from this we stepped in

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