Of course someone had to keep watch over Dodge while Jesse hurried to Austin to see the Governor, and it was decided to leave Sergeant Herlihy, re-enforced by a number of local detectives for that purpose.  But while the watchful Jesse was away, Bracken proceeded to get busy in the good old Howe and Hummel fashion.  Lots of people that Herlihy had never seen before turned up and protested that he was the finest fellow they had ever met.  And as Herlihy was, in fact, a good fellow, he made them welcome and dined and wined at their expense until he woke up in the Menger Hotel in San Antonio and inquired where he was.

Jesse meantime had returned from Austin to discover that Dodge with his companions, Kaffenburgh and Bracken, had slipped out of Houston early in the morning of February 11th, after disposing of Herlihy and eluding the watchfulness of Herlihy’s assistants.  Hummel was leading and by ten o’clock the next morning Dodge and his comrades were on board an English merchantman lying in the harbor of Galveston.  Later in the same day the Hummel interests chartered from the Southern Pacific Railroad for the sum of three thousand dollars the sea-going tug Hughes, to which Dodge was now transferred for the purpose of being conveyed to the port of Tampico in the Republic of Mexico.

But here Hummel’s wires became crossed with Jerome’s, and unfortunately for the little lawyer, the persons from whom the tug had been leased turned out to be closely allied with the prosecution’s interests, with the result that the captain of the tug was instructed by his superiors under no consideration to put into any Mexican port, but on the contrary, to delay his departure from the harbor of Galveston for a period of two days and then to proceed only as far as Brownsville, Texas, where he should compel the debarkation of the fugitive.  The captain, who was a good sport as well as a good officer, promptly threw himself into the part and told Bracken and Kaffenburgh that it was evident from the barometer that a severe storm was approaching (which must have had a sinister implication to these two unfortunate gentlemen), and that he could not think of putting to sea.  Once the “storm” had blown over, the tug started out across the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  But now Bracken and Kaffenburgh were informed for the first time it was impossible to consider putting into any port of the Republic of Mexico, since to do so would cause international complications and compel the revocation of the captain’s license.  In desperation the Hummel interests offered the captain five thousand dollars in cash to disregard his instructions and put into Tampico, but the worthy sea-dog was adamant.  It was probably worth five thousand dollars to him to see three gentry of this pattern so much put about.