In the latter part of 1870, Jesse and Frank James visited Kentucky, where they had a large number of[Pg 53] friends and relatives, who admired their bravery and condoned their crimes. They remained here until in the early part of the spring of 1874, when they and the Younger boys conceived a plan for robbing the bank at Columbia, Kentucky. On the 29th of April of that year, the three Youngers and the two James Boys entered Columbia about the same hour from five different roads, so that there was not the least apprehension excited. Just before three o'clock in the afternoon the five desperadoes rode up to the bank together, while Frank James and Cole Younger leisurely dismounted and entered the bank, where they found the cashier, Mr. Martin, the president, Mr. Dalrymple, and another gentleman engaged in a conversation. Without losing any time or creating any suspicion from the citizens of the place, the two bandits drew their pistols and going behind the bank counter, leveled them at the heads of the cashier and president, and demanded the keys to the safe. Seeing, at a glance, however, that the safe was secured by a combination lock, they commanded the cashier to open it under penalty of immediate death if he refused. Martin was a brave man, and i............