The boys made good their escape, but the wounds they had received in the fight were of a most painful nature and required careful attention. Frank's was the most severe, and had not Jesse bandaged it with the greatest skill the outlaw must have bled to death before obtaining medical aid, for one of the veins in his neck had been severed. The two reached Concepcion, a small town in Texas, about one hundred miles from Matamoras, where they remained in charge of a surgeon for nearly three months before their wounds had healed sufficiently to permit them to travel.
PLUNDERING AN IOWA BANK.
In the spring of 1871 Jesse and Frank James secretly returned to their haunts in Jackson county, Missouri, where they remained for some time arranging for an expedition into Iowa. Their plans being perfected, they, with five other bandits, started north, riding by night, until they reached Corydon, the bank in which place they had previously decided to rob. At ten o'clock in the morning the seven desperadoes made a furious charge into the center of the town and commenced a fusilade of firing, threatening to kill every person found on the streets within five minutes afterward. None of the citizens thought of offering any resistance, and dashing up to the bank, three of the robbers dismounted and rushed in with cocked pistols, and demanded of the cashier every cent the bank contained. Finding himself powerless, and realizing that death would be his certain portion if he refused to comply with the immediate demands of the desperate outlaws, the cashier opened the safe and permitted them to appropriate nearly $40,000. The money was placed in a sack, which they invariably carried with them for the purpose, and then the seven desperadoes rode rapidly out of the city, firing their pistols indiscriminately as they swept through the streets.
The citizens were, of course, intensely excited, and after the disappearance of the robbers a hundred persons volunteered their services to the sheriff to assist in the apprehension of the bold plunderers. Efforts at capture were made by a large body of men, but like all similar attempts, the result was nothing. They were followed into Missouri and telegrams sent to every town in the State, but, like imps of darkness, the seven dare-devils disappeared and were not again seen for several months; but it is now known that they were lying quietly in their impregnable haunt in the eastern part of Jackson county, waiting for a return of quiet.
ANOTHER BANK ROBBERY IN KENTUCKY.
In the latter part of 1870, Jesse and Frank James visited Kentucky, where they had a large number of 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 instead of being intimidated, tried to raise an alarm; but at the first outcry Frank James thrust a heavy navy revolver into his face and fired, killing him instantly; at the same moment Cole Younger fired at the president but, luckily, that gentleman struck up the pistol, and running into the back office, escaped with his life. The two robbers hastily gathered the money that was in sight, (about $200,) and gaining their horses the five rode out of the town at a rapid pace.
Fifteen men, headed by the sheriff, went in pursuit of the desperadoes, and chased them hard into the eastern part of Tennessee, where the trail was lost in the Cumberland range. Again the bandits doubled on their tracks, after the pursuit was abandoned, and went into the western part of Texas, where they mingled with the lawless elements of the border.
Every attempt at their capture had proven fruitless, and for the time being, the provincial banks were kept well armed in anticipation of a raid. The James Boys were too crafty to appear again in the counties where their terrible deeds had excited the people to desperation. They waited until the memory of their crimes had been partially forgotten, and then planned new schemes of pillage.