We were there ten minutes getting up steam. During that time he said he worked on a section once—though not on this road—and was discharged and a negro put in his place. He then decided not to work any more for a living. He said he had been around towns and had heard people say what they would do if they were “held up.” “What can a man do,” I asked, “in the fix you have me in?” “Do as I tell you.” he replied.
When I got steam up he said, “Hurry up to State Line, and send a message up and down the road, so they can get after us. Tell the operator I say to hurry up about it. Tell the boss of those cars (meaning the express cars) to put steps on them, or I will stop robbing them. Don’t ring the bell or blow the whistle,” he concluded, “or I will shoot into the engine.”
He told me, going down to the bridge, that he came here to rob this train because there was a boast in the papers last spring that he could not rob it, and he just wanted to show them what he could do.
The other two men, while we were talking at the engine, had gone out in the bushes. While going to the engine with me he told number three to put the messenger back in his car. When I got on the engine to start he said, “Holler to those boys on the other side, and tell them to get back from the train.” I thought he referred to his men, but saw none. In coming down from the station he said he had men and tools to do the job with.
* * * * *
The man described by Engineer Therrill as number one is easily recognized as Rube Burrow, number two as Joe Jackson, and number three as Rube Smith. The trestle at which the robbery was committed was undergoing repair by a force of bridge men, and the train was in the habit of stopping and then proceeding slowly across it. When the train stopped, therefore, Messenger Dunning supposed it was on account of the bad condition of the trestle, and gave little thought to the matter. When hailed by the engineer, who had been instructed by the robbers to call him to the door, the messenger found himself, on facing about, covered by revolvers through the grated or iron barred door of the car, the outer wooden door being open.
“Hold your hands down, and come to the door, or I will kill you,” said Burrow.
A shot from the pistol of one of the robbers on the outside of the car gave emphasis to the highwayman’s request, and when the grated door was pushed back, as ordered by Rube Burrow, he got in the car and, handing a sack to the messenger, said: “Put your money in there. Hurry up! I have no time to lose.”
Securing $2,685 from the express car, Burrow then went to the mail car and called for the registered mail. Mail Agent Bell had been collecting the registered matter, preparatory to leaving the car with it, when Rube entered and demanded it.
The registered mail, which contained $795, was taken, making the total amount secured $3,480, or $1,160 each.