on agent had come safely out of his trance, but
with that absence of memory of what had happened characteristic of the
hypnotized. The trail disappeared in the sands of the Miembres road.
Shrewd old Harvey Whitehill was at his wits' end.

Many days passed in fruitless search. At last, riding one day across the
plain at some distance from the line of flight north from Gage, Whitehill
found a fragment of a Kansas newspaper. As soon as he saw it he
remembered that a certain merchant of Silver came from the Kansas town
where this paper was published. Hurrying back to Silver, Whitehill saw
the merchant, who identified the paper and said that he undoubtedly was
its only subscriber in Silver. Asked if he had given a copy to any one,
he finally recalled that some time before, about the period of the
robbery, he had wrapped in a piece this newspaper some provisions he had
sold to a negro named Cleveland and a white man he did not know.

Here was the clue, and Whitehill was quick to follow it. Meeting a negro
on the street, he pretended to want to hire a cook. The negro had a job.
Well, did he not know some one else? By the way, where was George
Cleveland?

"Oh, boss, he done left de Gila dis week an' gone ober to Socorro," was
the answer.

Two days later Whitehill found Cleveland in a Socorro restaurant, got the
"drop" on him, told him his pals were arrested and had confessed that
they were in the robbery, but that he, Cleveland, had killed Engineer
Webster. This brought the whole story.

"'Foh God, boss, I nebber killed dat engineer. Mitch Lee done it, an'
him an' Taggart an' Kit Joy, dey done lied to you outrageous."

Within a few days, caught singly, in ignorance of Cleveland's arrest, and
taken completely by surprise, Joy, Taggart, and Lee were captured on the
Gila and jailed, along with Cleveland, at Silver City, held to await the
action of the next grand jury.

But strong walls did not a prison make adequate hold these men. Before
many weeks passed, an escape was planned and executed. Two other
prisoners, one a man wanted in Arizona, and the other a Mexican
horse-thief, were allowed to participate in the outbreak.

Taken unawares, their guard was seized and bound with little difficulty.
Quickly arming themselves in the jail office, these six desperate men
dashed out of the jail and into a neighboring livery stable, seized
horses, mounted, and rode madly out of town, firing at every one in
sight. In Si