After the murder of Mr. Askew, the bandits, in anticipation of renewed efforts to effect their capture, left Missouri and visited their old haunts in the south-west. They spent several days in the Indian Territory for the purpose of learning with what persistency and the character of the search being made by the authorities. Finding that all effort at their apprehension was confined to western Missouri, the outlaws rode into Texas and soon formed a plan for robbing the stage running between San Antonio and Austin. To plan was to execute, and on the 12th of May, 1875, Jesse James, Clell Miller, Jim Reed and Cole and Jim Younger selected a spot on the highway, about twenty-three miles south-west of Austin, and there ambushed themselves to await the coming of the stage.  
It was late in the evening, the sun just descending behind the hills and the chirrup of twilight insects had begun to echo in the solitude of the place. Eleven passengers, three of whom were ladies, were cheerily cracking jokes and relieving the discomforts of the journey by agreeable conversation. Suddenly the driver descried five horsemen riding out into the road one hundred yards ahead of the stage and advancing leisurely. Their appearance and conduct looked suspicious, but as no robberies had been perpetrated on the highway for many years, the driver[Pg 82] did not realize what the act portended until, as the stage bowled up, the five men, drawing their pistols, commanded a halt. The order being accompanied by such persuasive authority of course the obedience of the dri............