in perusing books and newspaper articles recording the adventures of the james and younger boys, the reader must have been impressed with the somewhat singular assertion that pursuit of the bandits generally ended by their sudden disappearance in jackson county, missouri. i will confess that i have often wondered how it was possible for a body of men to mysteriously disappear in a certain locality and thereby end a close pursuit. a gentleman who has been intimate with the james boys for a period of nearly twenty years and with whom i am intimately acquainted, volunteered to me the long-wished-for information, which he gave as follows, omitting only the exact location. i will use his own words as nearly as possible: