nce more astride a good horse, Thomas
felt like a free man. During the rest of the night he made good headway,
and by the morning sun was up the rider and horse were many miles away
from the place where first they met. Entering a small village, the horse
was fed and nicely groomed. At the same time Thomas partook of a good
breakfast, which he heartily enjoyed. The fates seemed to favor the
man of crime. It is an old saying: "The devil looks after his own." A
horse-buyer had arrived in the village a few days before. When the noon
train came whistling up to the station, the convict having converted his
horse into one hundred and twenty-five dollars, purchased a new suit of
clothes, a silk hat, and a pair of kid gloves, and, representing himself
to be a traveling salesman, getting aboard, soon reaches Chicago,
where, soon after his arrival, he joined a band of crooks. He was never
discovered by the Indiana prison officials. Fifteen years after
his escape, he got a "pal" to wire the authorities of the Indiana
penitentiary, and inquired of them what reward they would pay for the
return of Thomas A. Currens, a convict who had effected his escape many
years before. An answer came that if he would remain out of the State,
he would never be molested.

Wandering about several months after his escape, he arrives in Sedalia,
Missouri. Among other little articles he was accused of stealing at
this place was an eight hundred dollar barouche, the property of
Judge Ferguson, of that place. Again this noted thief was arrested
and confined in the county jail to await trial. He was not anxious for
trial, for he knew the "yawning pen" was waiting to receive him. For
eleven months he remained in this jail, having his trial continued from
term to term. When his case was called up for the first time he feigned
sickness. The next time one of the principal witnesses was absent, and
thus for eleven months his case was continued. Thomas now yearned for
freedom. How to get out of that jail was the problem. Another term of
court would soon convene. He had no grounds for further continuance.
Fortune favored him. At this time a man was arrested and placed in the
same cell with Currens. The face of the new arrival was covered over
with blotches. The next morning Currens in a confidential manner stated
to the sheriff that his cell mate had the small-pox. Being interrogated
the prisoner said he had been exposed recently, and a physician being
called, on