About seven o’clock the posse started from the river, giving orders to the driver of the hack not to follow until time had been allowed the advance guard to reach the ferryman’s house. This order was, however, disobeyed, and just as the detectives approached the house, and when only about three hundred yards distant, Rube drove up to the gate and inquired of Mrs. Broxton the whereabouts of her husband.
The woman answered: “He has been at the river all day with a party of hunters.”
Rube, ever on the qui vive, gathered his Marlin rifle from his cart, saying: “I’ll go down and see Mr. Broxton.”
Walking towards the ferry about fifty yards he heard strange voices, saw the hack, and intuitively knew that he himself was the game the hunters were after. Like a deer he bounded into the forest and was lost to his pursuers.
A guard was placed over the team which Rube had left as a trophy to his would-be captors, in the hope that the owner would return to confirm his doubts, if he had any, but Rube took the safe side, ran no risk, and did not return.
Rube set out at once for the log camp, arriving there about midnight. Arousing the cook, he bade him prepare supper, which he ate with great relish, while he recounted a story of thrilling adventure with highwaymen, in which he had luckily escaped with his life. Supplying himself with a goodly store of provisions from the camp’s larder, the outlaw about three o’clock A. M. said good-bye to his comrades, and went forth into the solitude of the forest, consoling himself with the reflection that he had again outwitted the detectives.
There are those who would doubtless have managed the affair at Broxton’s Ferry, on the eventful evening of February 6th, differently, perhaps successfully, but fortunately for Rube they were not present.
The ox team was taken to Milton and sold for the sum of $80.
Detective Jackson, undaunted by the luckless result of the chase, equipped himself for a tour through the swamps of Santa Rosa, and, leaving him in pursuit, the rest of the party turned their faces homeward.
As an example of the unparalleled audacity of the noted train robber it may here be recorded that a few weeks afterward he endeavored to recover the value of the oxen and cart by executing a bill of sale therefor to one Charles Wells. The latter demanded the property, but it is needless to say he did not succeed in obtaining it. The express officials notified the would-be purchaser that the outfit had been sold, and that the title of the party to whom sold would be defended against any and all claimants.