h he grew up. He killed many men, but he
was never as cold and cruel as Jesse, and of the two he was the braver
man, men say who knew them both. He never was known to back down under
any circumstances.

The fate of the Younger boys was much mingled with that of the James
boys, but the end of the careers of the former came in more dramatic
fashion. The wonder is that both parties should have clung together so
long, for it is certain that Cole Younger once intended to kill Jesse
James, and one night he came near killing George Shepherd through
malicious statements Jesse James had made to him about the latter.
Shepherd met Cole at the house of a friend named Hudspeth, in Jackson
county, and their host put them in the same bed that night for want of
better accommodations. "After we lay down," said Shepherd later, in
describing this, "I saw Cole reach up under his pillow and draw out a
pistol, which he put beside him under the cover. Not to be taken
unawares, I at once grasped my own pistol and shoved it down under the
covers beside me. Were it to save my life, I couldn't tell what reason
Cole had for becoming my enemy. We talked very little, but just lay
there watching each other. He was behind and I on the front side of the
bed, and during the entire night we looked into each other's eyes and
never moved. It was the most wretched night I ever passed in my life."
So much may at times be the price of being "bad." By good fortune, they
did not kill each other, and the next day Cole told Shepherd that he had
expected him to shoot on sight, as Jesse James had said he would.
Explanations then followed. It nearly came to a collision between Cole
Younger and Jesse James later, for Cole challenged him to fight, and it
was only with difficulty that their friends accommodated the matter.

The history of the Younger boys is tragic all the way through. Their
father was assassinated, their mother was forced to set fire to her own
house and destroy it under penalty of death; three sisters were arrested
and confined in a barracks at Kansas City, which during a high wind fell
in, killed two of the girls and crippled the other. John Younger was a
murderer at the age of fourteen, and how many times Cole Younger was a
murderer, with or without his wish, will never be known. He was shot
three times in one fight in guerrilla days, and probably few bad men
ever carried off more lead than he.

The story of the Northfield bank robbery in Minneso