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CAVALCADE Eleventh in a Series of Historical Paintings by Bill Ahrendt AMBUSH NEAR DREWS STATION

“Hold!” came a muffled shout from the darkness, as the stagecoach labored up a rise. “I hold for no one!” cried Bob Paul from the box, unleashing the fury of his double-barreled shotgun as rifle fire cracked around him.

At that instant driver Budd Philpot, shot through the heart, pitched forward and fell heavily onto the backs of the wheel horses.

Terrified, the horses lunged into their harness, spurred by a fusillade of revolver and rifle fire. Peter Roering, a miner riding atop the coach, was struck and thrown to the road as the horses raced out of control, reins dragging along the ground.

Their guns empty, the highwaymen fled, leaving a pall of black-powder smoke silently hanging above patches of new-fallen snow. The clattering runaway coach whirled past Drews Station and careened on nearly two more miles before Paul got the team under control. At Benson, he telegraphed U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, detailing what had occurred.

The Kinnear and Company stage had departed Tombstone on Tuesday evening, March 15, 1881, with Bob Paul riding the shotgun seat for Wells, Fargo & Co., whose express box at his feet is said to have contained $26,000 in coin. In a twist of fate, Budd Philpot early on complained about stomach cramps, and Paul agreed to spell him at the reins. Philpot took the Wells Fargo man's position and as it turned out a bullet meant for Paul.

Wyatt Earp promptly deputized Bat Masterson, along with Virgil and Morgan Earp, and met Paul at the scene of the shooting the next day. Traces of four gunmen were found at the site. Wyatt led a posse in pursuit of the killers,capturing a man named Luther King, who identified Jim Crane, Harry Head, and William Leonard as his accomplices.

It appeared that more than attempted robbery was behind the attack on the stagecoach. The previous November, Bob Paul had run for sheriff of Pima County against the incumbent, Charlie Shibell. (Cochise County was not formed from part of Pima County until February 1, 1881.) When the well-known Wells Fargo detective lost the election, both he and Wyatt Earp suspected ballot-box stuffing at San Simon by members of a faction led by Shibell supporters, the Clantons. Earp helped Paul enter a legal challenge questioning the validity of the San Simon vote count.

The maneuver obviously threatened outlaw elements who had no wish to alter the status quo in the sheriff's office. A few shots in the dark ought to solve the problem, they thought.

After the arrest of King, Bob Paul traveled to Phoenix, where his voting fraud challenge was upheld by the territorial Supreme Court. He was awarded his star as sheriff of Pima County and was reelected in 1882 and 1884. In 1890, Paul was appointed U.S. marshal for Arizona Territory by President Benjamin Harrison, and went on to achieve even greater renown.