Lock and Key Library, Magic Real Detectives | Page 8

good officer, promptly threw
himself into the part and told Bracken and Kaffenburgh that it was
evident from the barometer that a severe storm was approaching (which
must have had a sinister implication to these two unfortunate
gentlemen), and that he could not think of putting to sea. Once the
"storm" had blown over, the tug started out across the blue waters of
the Gulf of Mexico. But now Bracken and Kaffenburgh were informed
for the first time it was impossible to consider putting into any port of
the Republic of Mexico, since to do so would cause international
complications and compel the revocation of the captain's license. In

desperation the Hummel interests offered the captain five thousand
dollars in cash to disregard his instructions and put into Tampico, but
the worthy sea-dog was adamant. It was probably worth five thousand
dollars to him to see three gentry of this pattern so much put about.
While Dodge and his accomplices were dallying in the harbor of
Galveston, Jesse was taking advantage of his opportunity to proceed at
once by railroad to Alice, Texas, which at that time was the furthermost
southern point reached by any railway in the direction of Brownsville.
On his arrival, he at once applied to Captain John R. Hughes,
commanding Company D of the Texas Rangers, who received him with
great joy and ordered a detachment of the Rangers to meet the tug at
Point Isabelle at the mouth of the Rio Grande River on the border of
Mexico. In the meantime, Jesse started on a toilsome stage journey to
Brownsville, across one hundred and seventy miles of desert, which
occupied two days and nights, and necessitated his going without sleep
for that period. During the trip Jesse heard no word of English and had
as his associates only Mexican cattlemen. Every fifteen miles a fresh
relay of broncos was hitched to the stage and after a few moments' rest
the misery began again.
Jesse had been hurrying toward Brownsville by stage while Dodge,
Kaffenburgh, and Bracken were landing at Point Isabelle, where they
were kept under close surveillance by Sergeant Tom Ross of the
Rangers. Thence they took the train to Brownsville, registering at the
Miller House under the assumed names of C. F. Dougherty, A.
Koontzman, and E. M. Barker, all of Oklahoma. But, although they
knew it not, Sergeant Tom was at their elbow, and had Dodge
attempted to cross the border into Mexico he would instantly have been
placed under arrest.
As Brownsville was within the Southern District of the Federal Court
of Texas, Jesse decided not to arrest Dodge until he should actually
attempt flight, and when Dodge and his companions, on the following
morning, February 15th, entered the stage (the same upon which Jesse
had arrived) and started for Alice, Jesse and Tom Ross procured the
best horses they could find and started after them, keeping just in sight

of the stage. Dodge's intention in making this move was to take the
Mexican International Railway at Alice and cross over to Mexico via
Laredo.
Jesse and Ross covered the seventy-four miles from Brownsville to
Santa La Cruz Ranch by four in the afternoon, which was fairly
strenuous work for a New York detective, and here found themselves
so sore and exhausted from their ride that they were glad to hire a pair
of horses and buggy with which to complete the journey to Alice.
Luckily they were able to get into telephonic communication with
various ranch owners along the road and arrange to have fresh relays of
horses supplied to them every twenty miles, and here also Jesse called
up Captain Hughes at Alice, and suggested that he substitute for the
regular night clerk at the City Hotel one of the privates of the Rangers
by the name of Harrod.
Dodge and his companions arrived in Alice on February 17th, and, as
Jesse had anticipated, repaired at once to the City Hotel, where,
inasmuch as they were dry from the dust of their trip and depressed by
lack of society, they entered at once into an enthusiastic and
confidential friendship with the man behind the counter in the hotel
office, sublimely ignorant that they were unfolding to a member of the
Texas Rangers all their most secret intentions. Harrod was just as glad
to see Dodge as Dodge apparently was to see Harrod, and kindly
offered to assist the fugitive to get into Mexico in any way that the
latter desired. Dodge, for his part, took advantage of his usefulness to
the extent of requesting him to purchase them railroad tickets, the plan
being to leave Alice the following morning for Monterey, Mexico.
Three hours after the stage bearing Dodge and his party pulled up at the
City Hotel, Tom Ross and