The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-05
THE ROBBERS
 SURROUNDED Probable That They WILL
 Show Fight. PREPARED FOR A SIEGE Bandits Housed in Buildings
 of Aliens Ranch. If They Elude the Posse and 0ss Into the Bad Lands, They wm
 Probably Never 1s
 Taken.
PREPARED FOR A SIEGE

St. Paul. July IA special to Tho Pioneer Press from Great Falls, Mont, says: The three men who held up tku Great Northern express near Wagner 196 miles east, Wednesday afternoons will probably be captured before morn ing. Sheriff Griffith, with a posse Of twenty men. has surrounded them at
 Buck" Aliens ranch. about fortX miles south of Wagner, near the odHu of the old Fort Belknap reservation. 0n the west fork of the Pouchette Rivers The posse followed the bandits all yeo< terday afternoon. finding signs of them at ford on Beaver Creek, and agnin where they crossed the Dry Fork
 Information that reached here this afternoon Is that the posse came In sight of the men about o'clock today near the ranch. and. driving them iElr surrounded them It is probable thAt they will not be captured until after q severe light, and at the latest advices Sheriff Grifith had not made the at- tack.
 The bandits are thought to be housed in the ranch buildings, which ofk1n every protection for a siege. The posse. may not try to force eheir capture un- til endorsements are received. It is understood that another posse from south of the Missouri in the direction ok Fort Hawiey. will join Sheriff Grifnth at Aliens ranch.
 The sherifrs posse has not yet obs tained descriptions of the men. al- though Sheriff Griffith was a passenger on the train that was robbed and saw the men escape across the plains on their horses. The gang was identified today by their horses, and when ob- served through field glasses, the whito bay and bucksktn on which they were mounted after the robbery were plainly seen,
 Contrary to first reports. the men ara not experienced train robbers. Infor- matioh from WaEner and near -HT points fs that they have been partially Identified as COW punchers employed on ranch south of the Milk River. Ono Is haif-breed, as was thought at the time of the robbery. He is known to be the man who boarded the express east of Wagner and forced the engineer and fireman to bring 1t to stop at the head of the ravine in which his confed- crates were hidden.
 The work of tracking the bandits was extremely difficult owing to the na- ture of the country-Bad Lands. hrok- en throughout by foot hills and the eastern end of the Little Rocky range. Across the line of the Fort Belknap TeBcTVaIlOu, Only n Jew Httieb 0tHtaHtp there are excellent hiding places and ik is thought that if the bandits should eIude capture tonight and once get In this ground. 1t will be almost impossible to again find them.
 Information received here from Havre Is that neither Travelling Auditor of Clancey, Montaut. or Brake man whiteside were hit in the fusiiade from the bandits at the time of the robbery
 Gertrude M. Smith of Tomah. wis. received a slight flesh wound in the arm. It is probable that the first esti- mate of the loss. sS3.000. Is somewhat excessive. Reliable information re- ceived today is that $70,000 was se- cured and that this. with the damage to through express shipments result ing from the explosions in the cad will represent the entire loss of the com pany. No information concerning the consignee of the money in the through safe is obtainable. It is understood that considerable part was in the shape of shipments west from Chicago banks and other financial institutions.