By August 1, 1896, the High Fives were holed up on the Babocomari grant, in the San Pedro Valley north of Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

Inside the bank, the cashier, Major Fred Herrera, sat behind the counter while John Dessart stood at a desk working on balances.

Brummel entered the bank to join the meeting; Musgrave seized him and moved him toward the back, but this activity distracted Black Jack, and Dessart ran out the front door.

Black Jack struck and wounded Dessart in the head with his rifle, but the president reached the exterior, running and calling to Herry Lewis on the street, to telephone the police.

As they mounted up, Frank King, a deputy customs inspector, opened fire from across the street, wounding both Musgrave's and Black Jack's horses.

As they passed the Montezuma Hotel, a Treasury Department inspector named Ben E. Hambleton grabbed a rifle and mounted a horse to pursue.

The "bullet marks scarred much of downtown Nogales," but the only fatalities were animals: a horse hit by Black Jack and a mule by Major Herrera.

[1] Diego Ramirez of Nogales said that the High Fives made off with $40,000; however, Johnny Clarke, the son of a posse member who pursued the outlaws to Skeleton Canyon, said that "it was never known if they got away with the money or not.

They were pursued by a posse from Nogales, led by Customs Collector Samuel F. Webb, but the lawmen eventually abandoned the pursuit several days later on August 8.

From the border town of Lochiel, the posse had traveled fifteen miles into Sonora, but finally had to turn back because they lacked fresh mounts.

[1][5] When news of the robbery reached Tucson, Pima County Sheriff Robert N. Leatherwood went to Bisbee, closer to the border, and organized another posse.

On the morning of August 11, Sheriff Fly, and deputies Bill Hildreth, Burt Alvord and Will Johnson left Bisbee and headed east across the San Simon Valley to join up with Leatherwood.

(sic)[1]After they abandoned the chase, Ezekiels' posse camped overnight in Leslie Canyon, located on the ranch of Si Bryant near the remains of Fort Rucker.

On the next morning, Milton, Stiles, a man named Randolph, and Felix Mayhew left Ezekiels; they rode north through Dos Cabezas Canyon to board a train heading to Tucson.

At about 4:00 pm, Leatherwood and his men were near the entrance of Skeleton Canyon when suddenly "shots exploded from the underbrush seventy-five feet in front of the advancing lawmen.

Jeff Milton later recalled an account he was told of the gunfight: Bill Hildreth got in behind a tree and they [the High Fives] were shooting and the bullets would knock the bark off on one side and then the other.

Bisbee Orb commented: "Hildreth was acting as a guide for the officers having been driving cattle in that county for years and knows all the water holes and places in the vicinity.

[1] That same day, John Horton Slaughter, the former Cochise County sheriff; Bert Cogswell, William King, and two Mexican men, joined Leatherwood's posse, somewhere around Mulberry Ranch in western San Simon Valley, where they were resting their horses.

Immediately after the shootout, gang members Bob Christian, Hayes and Young rode to the Gray Ranch, near Victoria, New Mexico, and robbed the place for supplies.

On the following night, the three bandits were spotted in the mountains near the Diamond A Ranch by Tom Horn, the chief of the United States Army Apache Scouts.

Saying they were not involved in the skirmish, Black Jack and Musgrave told Hill they liked Robson and expressed sympathy for his widow, offering "financial assistance".

[1] Although the High Fives had been seen outside the Peloncillo Mountains, Edward L. Hall, the United States Marshal of New Mexico Territory, sent his chief deputy and brother-in-law, Horace W. Loomis, into the area in order to join Leatherwood's posse.

On August 24, Loomis telegraphed Hall, saying that the "robbers were encamped behind breast-works of a formidable nature and had stood off the deputies [Leatherwood's posse] so successfully that a considerable force of men would be necessary to dislodge them."

Engaged in the Apache Campaign to clear the Peloncillos of renegades, the army was willing to assist the roving posses in their hunt for the five bandits.