Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1912-04-11

that Cedric and Smith were in the old
bridge was far from conclusive In
fact, evidence that they were in the
bridge was about balanced by evidence
that they had swan the river and were
safe in one of their secret retreats
among the bluffs. However, careful
scare ing had not discovered any traces
of where they might have entered or
emerged from the river They could
not have crossed on the new bridge as
that had been under close guard ar
least since they We're seen creeping
through Crissman's orchard.
As yet all was confusion. The sher-
if had thought ont no detinate plan of
action nor made any attempt TO organ.
ize the mob that had gathered at safe
distance about the old bridge A de-
sire to capture Cedric and Smith was
flaming like mad prairie fire along
every fibre of his being. He had sep
arated himself from the crowd and was
standing under tree some nearer to
the bridge. He was all alert for the
faintest trace of valuable evidence. At
this iuncture he heard a futtering
noise in the bridge and saw some
pigeons fly past an opening in the side
They started suddenly from the east
part Of the bridge and seemingly lit
among the rafters near the west end.
While he was carefully weighing the
significance of this, the pigeons. seem
ingly startled by something in the
bridge came flying from the west end,
circled in the air and lit upon the roof
near the west end. The sheriff became
very much interested and watched
them very closely, One Of the males
ruff1ed up its feathers and began to COO
and strut about. Suddenly as it passed
near hole in the roof il ceased cooling,
gave quick little futter and hoped
to one side; then stretching its neck
it turned its head to one side and look
ed straight at the hole in the roof as if
watching the movements of some oh
iect in the bridge. After noting the
actions of these pigeons the sheriff be-
gan to pile up deductions from his oh
He concluded that the
bandits were in the bridge and had
frightened the pigeons while crawling
along the timbers in the upper part of
the bridge He concluded tn t they
had worked their way to the west end
and were now hiding among the braces
and rafters waiting for the coming Of
night when they would creep down
and make desperate effort TO escape
He now turned and walked slowly back
to the crowd, called his deputy and
Chrissman to one side and began 10
formulate plan of action. They de
cided to form semi-circles of rifiemen
about the ends of the bridge and drive
the bandits to the lower part by rid
ding the gables ard roof with bullets
Chrissman was sent to the west end TO
o "ganize the men in accord with this
plan.
No one noticed crowd of six boys
ranging from twelve to eighteen years
of age that had gathered close down TO
the river behind the west bank. The
leader of this gang of youngsters had
raised purse of pennies, marbles and
an old jack knife. With this purse
they induced one of their number, a
half witted boy by the name of Guy
Foisen, to creep up and peep in at the
west end of the bridge.
High waters had caused the west
bank to cave in, leaving a gully about
six feet wide between the end Of the
bridge and the solid bank. This gully
was spanned by two planks that had
been torn from the floor of the bridge
by boys who came there to romp and
Fl IN.
When Young Foisen reached these
planks he walked boldly across, placed
his hand on the side of the entrance,
poked his head slowly into the bridge
and began to peer about
(To be concinued)