"You know," said he, "that Jackson county is one of the most rugged and broken districts in Missouri; it not only abounds with bluffs, but also, in at least a few places, with almost impenetrable thickets, fit[Pg 45] only for the abode of catamounts and foxes. One day I was riding through Jackson county, I will not tell you where, when suddenly I was confronted by Frank 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 right arm; therefore I invite you to our retreat; come with me!' I followed him in a bridle path for nearly a mile, when we came to a precipitous bluff, the base of 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 the mouth are two bold rocks, which are apparently attached to the bluff itself; this delusion is accomplished by keeping the interstices filled with fresh brush so laid as to appear like a natural coppice. This passage-way leads about fifty feet, to a large fissure in the side of the bluff, resembling a vestibule; from this we stepped into a large cave, quite roomy enough to contain comfortably more than a score of men and horses. I was astonished at the completeness of the arrangement of things in the cave. There was a cooking stove, the pipe of which extended up and was lost in the top of the cave. Frank James told me that the smoke from the stove passed into a fissure of rock which evidently opened into another cave, as no smoke could ever be seen issuing from the bluff. He then took me over to another part of the cavern, where there was a clear spring of[Pg 46] beautiful water, an............