In August, 1904, Bracken made one of his periodical visits to New York, and when he returned sought out Jesse and said:  “Blocher, you might as well be a good fellow and get yours while you can.  I mean that Dodge is not going back to New York, even if it cost a million dollars to prevent it.”  A few days later Bracken sent a gambler named Warner to Jesse, who offered the latter thirty-five hundred dollars to get “lost” long enough for the prisoner to slip over to Mexico.  Acting upon the advice of his attorney, Jesse encouraged this attempt, under the belief that if he could get the Hummel forces in the position of having attempted to bribe him the prisoner’s bail could then be forfeited and Dodge himself taken into custody.  Hummel became wary, however, and apparently abandoned for the time the idea of bribery.  Later on Bracken again disappeared.  On his return a marked change was noticeable in his demeanor and Jesse observed that he was in constant consultation with Dodge, from which the detective drew the inference that some last desperate move was to be made towards the escape of the prisoner.

On one occasion Jesse saw Bracken showing Dodge a map and some drawings on paper, which so excited his suspicions that he followed the two with unremitting assiduity, and within a day or two was rewarded through Bracken’s carelessness with an opportunity for going through the latter’s coat pockets in the billiard room.  Here he found a complete set of plans worked out in every detail for spiriting the prisoner from San Antonio into Mexico during the State Fair.  These plans were very elaborate, every item having been planned out from the purchase of tickets, and passing of baggage through the customs, to hotel accommodation in the City of Mexico and Tampico, and steamship tickets from Tampico to Europe.

The plan had been to secure permission from the Court for Dodge to leave Houston long enough ostensibly to attend the fair at San Antonio and to “lose” him during the excitement and crowded condition of the city at that time.

It is, of course, needless to say that these plans were abandoned when Bracken discovered that Jesse had been forewarned.

Almost immediately thereafter the Circuit Court of Appeals at Fort Worth, Texas, decided one of the habeas corpus cases adversely to Dodge, but it still permitted him to retain his liberty pending the final determination of the questions involved by the Supreme Court at Washington.

The Hummel forces were apparently losing hope, however, for early in October another attempt was made to bribe Jesse.  Bracken entered his room one evening and informed him that he could get his own price if he would only be a good fellow, and even went so far as to exhibit a quantity of money which he stated was twenty-five thousand dollars.  The only result of this offer was to lead Jesse to redouble his precautions, for he argued that the situation must indeed be acute when such an offer could be deemed worth while.  Thereafter it was obvious that the revelry of Dodge and his companions was on the increase.  Accordingly Jesse added to his force of assistants.