HUNTING OUTLAWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14984, 4 May 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

HUNTING OUTLAWS.

' ■«•"/ - . . I BAND AT BAY IN "DEVIL'S DEN,"J

MILITIA CALLED OUT.

The hunt for th® notorious gang of ginian outlaws known as the Allen gang grows keener every day, but the desperadoes have established themselves ip a position from which ; it is thought that only starvation will.- dislodge them. A« » narrated in last week's supplement one of the gang, James, was tried at Hillsville and found guilty of a petty theft. Directly the verdict was returned James drew a revolver and shot the foreman dead. This was the signal for a general fusillade, in which the relatives and friends of AH®", the court officii, and the • jurors joined. The judge, prosecuting counfcfel, and a twelve-year-old girl, were killed, and twenty people.were wounded. "... With one exception, the. gang got away to - the mountains. That exception was Sidney- Allen. He got away from tb< court,' but lie had a bullet-wound in th« chest, and was unable to follow the rest o! the gang. So he rode to his house, sever miles awa -

jlfcre he was followed by a sheriff osse, who found the house strongly barricaded and loopholed. Sorely wounded as he was, Sidney Allen opened a bmk fir® oil, the posfie, his wife reloading the rifles for him. . ; > ■ • ' Strategy had'- to be resorted to. A number of the assailants kept the Attention, of the defenders centred on the front of the house, while a, strctfg body made their way unobserved to the rear, and forced an entrance through the back door. ' - Allen, who had received two more •wounds, was unable to make further resis ante, but his' wife fired -on' the intruders, who replied, stretching her dead by her husband's side. " Allen was taken to hospital. He » not expected to survive. - Next day the police found - Garland Allen, a Primitive Baptist, and brother of Sidney, in front of the latter's house. ..The police made the preacher precede them in another sortie tb Allen's house. The latter, -when searched, was. found to be deserted. Thfey then released the preacher, as there was no charge against him. , , •/ . Meanwhile the State Militia had been called out. and, with the aid of parties of civilians, had located the hiding-place of the rest of the gang. It-is in a mountain pass known as Devil Den Cave. .. This cave is a deep fissure^ in a granite can in the highest part of the "J®®,. Ridge Mountains, and the gang, some Murty in number, are in an excellent position, ana well supplied with arms and ammuni- • It is quite certain thai the Aliens will hot surrender,, and it will be necessary to exterminate them, as they will fight to the last man. Machine guns are being taken to the spot, -though with very great difficulty, because the roads are deep in mud, but the bandits have no hope of escaping the thick cordon which has been drawn around them. * "•'«V-' 'V' 5%,/^"" ■ - It is believed that the gang is illprovided with food, since their retreat was 60 hasty, and they had little resources at their command. On this account, though there may be active fighting, chiefly of the skirmishing 1 "order, the authorities hope to starve them, out, and the troops are making preparations for a siege. - ' . One difficulty that presents itsejf is that the outfit hare numerous friends, and.it is feared thai these rttoin, whose cabins axe scattered throughout the Bine Ridge® in the same district, may come to the aid of the Aliens, and thus place the troops between two fires. - ' i. [According to the latest cable advices two of the gang are still at large, but the ringleaders were captured without bloodshed. They were tracked, by bloodhounds.]