Mr. Ireland and his party rode past this hollow to the robbers’ horses, where a council of war was held. At last Mr. Ireland and Dan Robbins volunteered to trail Flag and Stone while three of the party remained with the horses, and Tom Oakley, armed with a very fine rifle belonging to Mr. Ireland, took a position on the hillside behind a rock, where he could pick off the road agents if they emerged from the brush.
Cautiously, with every sense alert, the two daring men worked their way into the hollow. They knew they were within a few feet of their quarry, but could see nothing of them. Presently Mr. Ireland said: “Dan, here’s where we’re close upon them, because they have trampled these willows down and they have sprung up again.”
At the same moment Oakley’s voice called a warning from the hill, “Look out! You’re close on them!”
Simultaneously a shot rang out and Daniel Robbins fell, riddled with shot. Flag and Stone made a dash from cover, but Oakley brought them both down with two well-directed shots from his rifle. The two men lay side by side, Flag dead, and Stone with a wound in his leg that necessitated its amputation.
Mr. Ireland and his companions tried to get Stone to tell where the $36,000 taken from the coach was hidden. Stone at first insisted that the stage had been held up by five men, three of whom had in turn robbed himself and Flag, who were left empty-handed. These three men, Stone said, had the money. Tom Oakley, after whom the town of Oakley in Bannock county was named, was a man of forbidding appearance and a bad man to trifle with. He took a hand in the matter and Stone finally confessed that the money was hidden near Elkhorn, where it was afterward found.
After the fight, which occurred in the early morning, Mr. Ireland rode back to Malad and returned the same day with a doctor, having traveled over forty miles after his harrowing experience.
Mr. Robbins recovered from his wounds and died a few years ago in Salt Lake. At the time they entered the willow thicket, Mr. Ireland was wearing a grey and Mr. Robbins a white shirt. Stone said afterward that he and Flag saw the gleam of the white shirt through the foliage, and were thus enabled to shoot Robbins, although they could see no other portion of the two men.
Stone was sent to the penitentiary at Boise, but after a short imprisonment secured a pardon and became a preacher.
Not until after their return from this expedition did Mr. Ireland’s party learn that a large reward had been offered for the capture of the two road agents. A quarter of the $36,000 stolen was divided among the seven men, who received $1280 each.
Another successful use of dummies was made by a lone bandit, who placed several at a turn in the road not far from Malad, and succeeded in relieving a coach, driven by James Boyle, of several bars of gold. There were no passengers in the stage.