few artificial additions, formed for them a cavern, in which--so
admirably was it overgrown by the surrounding forest, and so finely
situated among hills and abrupt ridges yielding few inducements for
travel--they found the most perfect security.

It is true such a shelter could not long have availed them as such, were
the adjacent country in the possession of a civilized people; but the
near neighborhood of the Cherokees, by keeping back civilization, was,
perhaps, quite as much as the position they had chosen, its protection
from the scrutiny of many, who had already, prompted by their excesses,
endeavored, on more than one occasion, to find them out. The place was
distant from the village of Chestatee about ten miles, or perhaps more.
No highway--no thoroughfare or public road passed in its neighborhood,
and it had been the policy of the outlaws to avoid the use of any
vehicle, the traces of which might be followed. There was, besides, but
little necessity for its employment. The place of counsel and assemblage
was not necessarily their place of abode, and the several members of the
band found it more profitable to reside, or keep stations, in the
adjacent hamlets and _stands_ (for by this latter name in those regions,
the nightly stopping-places of wayfarers are commonly designated) where,
in most cases, they put on the appearance, and in many respects bore the
reputation, of staid and sober working men.

This arrangement was perhaps the very best for the predatory life they
led, as it afforded opportunities for information which otherwise must
have been lost to them. In this way they heard of this or that
traveler--his destination--the objects he had in view, and the wealth he
carried about with him. In one of these situations the knowledge of old
Snell's journey, and the amount of wealth in his possession, had been
acquired; and in the person of the worthy stable-boy who brought corn to
the old fellow's horses the night before, and whom he rewarded with a
_thrip_ (the smallest silver coin known in the southern currency, the
five-cent issue excepted) we might, without spectacles, recognise the
active fugleman of the outlaws, who sawed half through his axle, cleaned
his wheels of all their grease, and then attempted to rob him the very
night after.

Though thus scattered about, it was not a matter of difficulty to call
the outlaws together upon an emergency. One or more of the most
trustworthy among them had onl