In the meantime news of the intended shipment had reached the headquarters of the Vigilantes.

The Executive Committee went into immediate session.  It was evident that the proposed disbanding would have to be postponed.  A discussion followed as to methods of procedure to meet this new crisis.  The Committee fell into the trap prepared for it.  Probably no one realized the legal status of the muskets, but supposed them to belong already to the State.  Marshal Doane was instructed to capture them.  He called to him the chief of the harbor police.  “Have you a small vessel ready for immediate service?” he asked this man.  “Yes, a sloop, at the foot of this street.”  “Be ready to sail in half an hour.”

Doane then called to his assistance a quick-witted man named John Durkee.  This man had been a member of the regular city police until the shooting of James King of William.  At that time he had resigned his position and joined the Vigilance police.  He was loyal by nature, steady in execution, and essentially quick-witted, qualities that stood everybody in very good stead as will be shortly seen.  He picked out twelve reliable men to assist him, and set sail in the sloop.

For some hours he beat against the wind and the tide; but finally these became so strong that he was forced to anchor in San Pablo Bay until conditions had modified.  Late in the afternoon he was again able to get under way.  Several of the tramps sailing about the bay were overhauled and examined, but none proved to be the prize.  About dark the breeze died, leaving the little sloop barely under steerageway.  A less persistent man than Durkee would have anchored for the night, but Durkee had received his instructions and intended to find the other sloop, and it was he himself who first caught the loom of a shadow under Pueblo Point.

He bore down and perceived it to be the sloop whose discovery he desired.  The twelve men boarded with a rush, but found themselves in possession of an empty deck.  The fumes of alcohol and the sound of snoring guided the boarding-party to the object of their search and the scene of their easy victory.  Durkee transferred the muskets and prisoners to his own craft; and returned to the California Street wharf shortly after daylight.  A messenger was dispatched to headquarters.  He returned with instructions to deliver the muskets but to turn loose the prisoners.  Durkee was somewhat astonished at the latter order but complied.

“All right,” he is reported to have said.  “Now, you measly hounds, you’ve got just about twenty-eight seconds to make yourselves as scarce as your virtues.”