Rube now ordered the engineer to take the coal pick which he gave him and break in the front door of the express car. While the engineer was engaged in doing so, Rube, standing on the platform of the car behind him, fired five shots into the air on the one side, and four shots on the other side, and by this ruse made it appear that the woods were full of robbers. Johnson, the messenger of the Southern Express Company, stood on the floor of his car, pistol in hand, as the engineer entered, the door being broken through, and manifested a disposition to resist the attack upon his car. Rube, however, standing in the doorway, covered him with his two Colt’s revolvers, and threatening to shoot both engineer and messenger, the latter, being entreated also by the engineer, like Ben Battle, of old, “laid down his arms.” Rube threw a sack to the engineer, not trusting himself to cross the portals of the doorway in which he stood, and bade him hold it, while the messenger was ordered to place within it the contents of his safe. The messenger complied, but the bulk of the matter placed in the sack was so small that Rube insisted he had not received all. The messenger, taking from his safe a book, said: “This is all--do you want this?” “No,” said Rube, “don’t put that in.” “Give me your pistol,” then said Rube, “butt end foremost.” The messenger complied, and Rube backed out of the car, saying to the messenger and engineer: “If you poke your heads out of the car before I get out of sight, I will shoot them off.” The work was done so quickly that the passengers were hardly aware of what had occurred until all was over. The conductor, who came forward and entered the rear compartment of the express car, which was used for baggage, while the messenger was delivering the contents of his safe, was observed by Rube and ordered to retreat. Taking in the situation, the conductor deemed prudence the better part of valor, and complied. This proved to be Rube’s last exploit at train robbing, and he secured only the pitiful sum of $256.19. Officers of the Express Company, with several detectives, arrived on the scene the next day, and it was soon ascertained that Rube had gone back into Santa Rosa County, from which he was quickly driven by the detectives, on the long, last chase of his career. CHAPTER XIX. RUBE ROUTED FROM FLORIDA--THE CHASE INTO MARENGO COUNTY, ALA.-- HIS CAPTURE. The detectives of the Southern Express Company were only a few hours behind the outlaw when he reached his lair in Santa Rosa County on the third day after the Flomaton robbery. Anticipating his return an effort was made to cut off his retreat. Rube, however, had twenty-four hours the start, and being at home in the swamps, succeeded in eluding his pursuers.