ion of the scar, which, upon examination, was found correct,
the crowd became angry and threats of lynching and personal violence
were heard on various sides. The judge therefore ordered that the
prisoners be removed from the court-room to the jail before any in the
audience had left their places.

In charge of the regular sheriff and four or five deputies the prisoners
were led from the court-room. They had but just reached the street,
however, when those inside heard shots fired in quick succession,
followed by angry cries and shouts for help. The crowd surged to the
doors, to see the officers surrounded by a band of the outlaws who had
been lying in wait for their appearance, having been summoned by the
signal given on the arrest of the leader. With the help of the citizens
the fight was soon terminated, but when the melee was over it was
discovered that the sheriff had been killed, a number of citizens and
outlaws wounded, and Martinez, alias Walcott, had escaped.

_Chapter XXXVIII_

WITHIN THE "POCKET"

The remainder of that day and the following night were spent in
fruitless efforts to determine the whereabouts of the fugitive.
Telegrams were sent along the various railway lines into every part of
the State; messengers were despatched to neighboring towns and camps,
but all in vain. For the first thirty-six hours it seemed as though the
earth must have opened and swallowed him up; there was not even a clue
as to the direction in which he had gone.

The second morning after his disappearance reports began to come in from
a dozen different quarters of as many different men, all answering the
description given of the fugitive, who had been identified as the
criminal. Four or five posses, averaging a dozen men each, all armed,
set forth in various directions to follow the clews which seemed most
worthy of credence. For the next few days reports were constantly
received from one posse or another, to the effect that they were on the
right trail, the fugitive had been seen only the preceding night at a
miners' cabin where he had forced two men at the point of a revolver to
surrender their supper of pork and beans; or some lonely ranchman and
his wife had entertained him at dinner the day before. He was always
reported as only about ten hours ahead, footsore and weary, but at the
end of ten days they returned, disorganized, dilapidated, and disgusted,
without even having had a sight of their man.

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