Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-01-21
CAPTURING THE CHIEF.

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Mexican, whose real name was not gener-
ally known, but by his confederates was
called Capt. Rube, and being a tail,
gaunt and very dark visaged fellow, the
people where he was only known as
desperate and robber, gave him the So
briquet of Black Rube, a name that
really became bugbear. He was a
shrewd, daring fellow and ever seemed to
know Just where the finest horses were,
and how they were secured; also when
private families or country stores had
any money about them; and when such
was the case, the proprietors might be
sure that Black Rube would give them a
call, unless, forSooth, q watch was set to
receive him, and if there was, he was
sure to find it out and forbear to put in
an appearance, at least until after such
precaution ceased.
How he kept posted about such matters
was something of conundrum to every
body not actually engaged in the business
with him; still most people thought they
knew just how he got his information; if
called upon to do SO, could lay their hands
on the very man and no mistake. But,
notwithstanding many schemes had been
devised to detect the various suspected
culprits, no one had ever been found
guilty.
Every effort to capture Rube had
hitherto proven abortive; he either outran
his pursuers, or threw them off his track
and thus escaped them. Twice he had
turned upon his pursuers, surprised and
dispersed them These feats of artful dar-
ing excited no little ambition and deter
mination among the people, especially in
the breasts of young blooGs, many of whom
m bo OF ODD y,tn Of
shrewd bold robber.
He was usually attended, it seems, by q
greater or less number of followers, ac-
cording as the prospective harvest was
great or small At the time Of which we
write there had been quite a number of
horses stolen, besides one or two stores
robbed of considerable sum of money
AS usual, on the disclosure of such events,
great excitement and confusion prevailed;
and before this cooled down to rational
basis, and party fifty equipped and sent
in pursuit, the bold Rube with his i'll
gotten gains, was many miles away, rum
ming, as he ever did, for the painless
mountain region, where it was next to
impossible to capture him, because of the
difficulty of tracking him fast enough to
overtake him.
AS this sagacious robber chief had been
so unsuccessfully pursued heretofore, the
leading men of the country, forming them
selves into what they termed a committee
of safety, made selection of eight of the
most resolute and trustworthy young men,
offering them q considerable reward III
money to keepup the pursuit till they cap
tured or killed Black RUDE, and gold
watch to him who actually did the deed.
The party so selected was to be intrusted
to the leadership of one Capt. Brudee, a
man who had won great credit as a scout
in the Union army during the.war. 1t is
hardly necessary to add that every one so
selected readily accepted the offer and i'm
mediately reported ready for service. As
had served much under Capt Brudee.
and was well known to him, | was also
prevailed on to join this enterprise
Every step was taken to insure success;
the party was well mounted, armed and
otherwise equipped for long and effectual
pursuit; in fact, our watchword was,
BLACK Rube must eome.n But, as the
Yankee said when he tackled the skunk,
that though he was much the biggest, the
advantage was with the skunk by dooced
long odds;'' so in this case, victory, or
rather the prize, was won by those, and in
a way least expected.
To facilitate the tracking of the thieves
and travelling through painless country,
an Indian and Chinaman, both consid-
cred trustworthy and expert woodsmen,
were attached to our party. The Indian,
however, was only half breed and little
known other than he was a great stroller
and hunter. AS their names were unfa-
miliar to US, and outlandish anyway, and
as the first named was rather dark, the
other very yellow, we humorously styled
them our black and tan pointers, aud so
called the one BLACK and the other
Tan"
These men were dressed in Indian cos
tune and armed with old and rather
dilapidated guns and hunting knives, so
that if seen by the robbers would not
likely be mistrusted, but taken for what
they seemed to be, Indian hunters, thus
serving in some sort as spies or decoys.
At length all fairly in readiness for
start, we set out on the pursuit, and, for
greater secrecy, in the wee small hours of
the night. We soon reached the mountain
region where the robbers had entered.
Here the guards dismounted and struck
ont To hunt the trail: this thew soon found.