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blasted back upon his cot. 44
    Again a squad came to the home of Judge Carpenter bent on burning and killing. But just as the others did before, the men left quieter than they came.
    When they had finished with him, Arthur Spicer was brought back to Quantrill at the City Hotel. Despite his earlier threat, however, the guerrilla leader now seemed totally unconcerned at Spicer’sreturn, and after entering the building the saloonkeeper passed discreetly to the rear. 45
    Activity picked up on Massachusetts Street as many of the raiders drifted back. Stores gone over lightly before were now cleaned out. Some merchants and clerks were compelled to wait on bushwhackers as if they were regular customers while liquor and food was being served and boots, shirts, and hats were being tried on. 46 In the apartments above terrified families were forced out, but not until they had filed past the Rebels and been robbed.
    I’ll take that watch!
    Give me those earrings .
    Fork over them greenbacks .
    Shell out, God damn it … and be quick about it!
    As fewer Rebels moved through the lesser streets some people came out and made their escape. With his wife, little daughter, and a friend, the Reverend Richard Cordley left his home and splendid library and quietly threaded through the streets. After some “exciting moments” the four entered the brush and walked to the riverbank. There, in a marvelous stroke of luck, an alert friend on the opposite shore recognized the Cordleys and, risking his own life, rowed a boat across and ferried the group to safety. 47 One man and his wife stuffed a change of clothes in a pillow slip, sat their children in a play wagon, and simply walked away. 48
    If one could muster the courage, getting through the streets and beyond the first line of pickets was to escape, for those patrolling further out—farmers and boys mostly—showed little inclination to stop or harm the refugees. Most citizens, though, remained fast in the same places they had throughout the morning—whether indoors or out.
    One man holding an umbrella sat in the open undisturbed, shading his wife and child. Another, after being chased and shot at, fell and was immediately covered by his wife. Long after the assailants had left the woman continued to wail and shriek. Afraid she would draw even more attention his way, the husband at last whispered, “For God’s sake, wife, don’t take on so. I don’t know if I’m even hit.”
    After helping the bushwhackers load packhorses, the two young clerks at R & B’s, still barefoot and half-clad, eased off to the bushes and raced to the river. The frightened New Yorker saw no point in stopping there, however, and after swimming the Kaw he sprinted up the Leavenworth Road. 49
    At last, the Eldridge House, thus far spared though picked clean from “cellar to garret,” was put to the torch. As some raiders were busy spreading the fire on the ground floor, a woman ran up screaming that a black baby, left by its mother and forgotten in the excitement, still remained inside. After listening for a moment, the men went on with their work.
    â€œBurn the God damn little brat,” was the grim reply. 50
    The fires caught, then climbed rapidly to the fourth floor. In a very short time “the finest building in Kansas”—plush carpets, chandeliers, music, dancing, laughter, and all—was enveloped in flames.
    On the adjacent corner the courthouse went up. Across the street from that, Danver’s Ice Cream Saloon burned, and so on down the street until both sides were completely ablaze. And while the fires were set the Rebels celebrated; walking or riding through the street in fancy clothes and shiny new boots, wearing rings on their fingers and gold chains and crosses from their necks; gulping down lobster, oysters, figs, and ice cream; smoking black cigars; guzzling beer, brandy, and French champagne; waving top hats in the air as the