Rube Smith had conceived the idea of playing the role of leader in a train robbery, but when the appointed hour came he lost confidence in his ability for so bold an adventure, and abandoned the project for a less daring deed. While awaiting the train, however, to take him to the scene of his contemplated crime, he was arrested as described. He was taken to Waynesboro, the county seat of Wayne County, Miss., and on April 1, 1890, was convicted and sentenced to ten years, the extent of the penalty, in the state-prison, for robbing the Southern Express car at Buckatunna, Miss. [Illustration: RUBE SMITH.] CHAPTER XIV. A FALSE ALARM--THE OX-CART TRIP TO FLORIDA--THE SEPARATION--RUBE LOCATED AT BROXTON FERRY--HIS ESCAPE. Rube and Joe, on their return to Lamar County, found their lair closely beset by detectives. They found shelter, however, for some two weeks, spending the nights in the barn-loft of Allen Burrow, one of the men standing watch while the other slept. On the 26th of October, 1889, the following telegram was received by an official of the Southern Express Company from Sheriff Morris, of Blount County, Alabama: “A posse in charge of one of my deputies attempted to arrest two men, armed with pistols and Winchesters, fifteen miles from Oneonta, Ala., yesterday. They killed two of the posse and wounded five. Am positive the men were Rube Burrow and Joe Jackson.” Repairing to Blount County, with blood-hounds and detectives, it was soon ascertained by the express officials that the men were not Burrow and Jackson, but two “moonshiners,” who had shot and wounded a revenue officer at Blockton, Ala., about ten days prior to the date of the attack by the sheriff’s posse. Correspondents representing several prominent southern journals hied themselves to Blount County to gather the details of another tragic chapter in the history of Rube Burrow, and one enterprising scribe, fresh from the field of carnage in Blount County, went into Lamar County, bent on an interview with the famous bandit. This was the handsome and gifted Barrett, of the Atlanta _Constitution_. Arriving at Allen Burrow’s, in company with Jim Cash, the young journalist made known the object of his visit. The detectives having gone on a false trail to Blount County, Rube and Joe were at that time in old man Burrow’s barn-loft, and when Allen Burrow took Barrett’s horse thither he revealed to Rube the proposition of the correspondent to interview him. Rube declined, saying he knew the paper would publish a description of him, and he did not want that done. Mr. Barrett, however, sent a very elaborate report of an alleged interview to the _Constitution_, which, as a faithful historian, the author is compelled to state never took place.