Early Sunday morning, October 5th, found the officers of the Express Company and the detectives in conference at Demopolis. It was decided to organize in a quiet way additional possees to guard the river landings and to search the northern district of Marengo County, in which it was certain the outlaw had gone. Scores of the good people of that section joined in the chase.
Marengo County, by Sunday night, had been organized into one vast army of detectives. At daylight on Monday morning it was known that Rube had not crossed the river. The search was therefore renewed with unceasing vigilance. Knowing that the outlaw was apt to visit a negro cabin for food, the white planters were apprised of the situation and were especially enjoined to put their colored employes on watch.
About midnight on Monday, Jackson and McDuffie returned to Demopolis, and no tidings of the outlaw, up to that hour, had been received. However, about three o’clock A. M., Tuesday, a courier, sent by Mr. D. J. Meadow, brought the news that Rube had been seen about dark three miles from Beckley’s Landing, about eighteen miles south of Demopolis. It was surmised that the outlaw, being so close to the river, would possibly cross that night.
Jackson went down on the west side of the river, while McDuffie took the east bank. While en route, McDuffie was joined by J. D. Carter, who, infused by the spirit that prevailed among the good people of that section, expressed a desire to assist in the chase. McDuffie and Carter joined each other at noon, and deploying the men under him through the bottoms, McDuffie was soon alone with Carter.
Meantime Jesse Hildreth, a very worthy and reliable colored man, had discovered Rube in an abandoned cabin Tuesday morning. Hildreth had noticed smoke arising from the cabin chimney the night previous, and repairing thither early next morning found the outlaw asleep. He woke him and at once recognized the fugitive described to him the previous day. Rube said he was hunting work, and asked Jesse to get him some coffee. Jesse, pretending to be in search of his horse, told Rube he would go by home and order coffee sent him. Jesse kept watch on the cabin, and finding Rube about to depart, rejoined him at the cabin and endeavored to detain him by selling Rube his horse. Rube, however, did not want to buy a horse, and asked the way to Blue Lick. Jesse, determined to keep Rube in sight, offered to go and show him the way. Rube mounted Jesse’s horse, while the latter walked.
About noon, while passing the house of a colored man, George Ford, Jesse suggested to Rube, as it had begun to rain very hard, to stop and get dinner, and wait till the rain should be over. To this Rube consented. While dinner was being prepared, Jesse, on the alert for “some of the bosses,” as he expressed it, went out of the house. Frank Marshal, a colored man, who was also looking for the stranger, at this moment rode up to the cabin. Jesse quickly explained that the man was in Ford’s house, and while the colored men were in conference they discovered, to their great joy, two white men about a quarter of a mile distant, riding in their direction. Joining them at the foot of the hill the two men proved to be McDuffie and Carter.
Ford’s cabin was in an open field, and McDuffie and Carter found they could not approach it within less than two hundred yards without being seen. It was agreed that Jesse and Frank should go ahead, enter the cabin, seize the outlaw, and give the signal to McDuffie and Carter, who would approach cautiously under cover.
Entering the cabin, the negroes found Rube making ready for his departure, having eaten dinner. He was wholly unsuspicious of anything wrong in the movements of the colored men, however. Rube was in the act of wrapping his trusty Marlin rifle in an oil cloth, when Jesse said:
“Boss, let me wrap it for you.”
Rube handed the rifle to Jesse, who carefully wrapped it, and feigning to hand it back, dropped it. Quick as thought Jesse gathered his great brawny arms about the outlaw, and with a grip like that of an octopus he struggled for the mastery. Frank Marshal threw himself upon the outlaw at the same time, but not being very robust, was not able to greatly assist Jesse. The latter was as strong as an ox. His weight was one hundred and eighty lbs., his height about five feet ten inches, and there was not an ounce of surplus flesh upon him. He wore no shoes, and his great, broad feet looked as big as a pair of Virginia hams.