An hour or two later the bandits seem to have lost their road, for they called at the house of a farmer named Sager, and demanded a horse, saying they were after horse thieves. Sager is a prudent German, and required to see their authority. They laughed at him and secured his horse, but on attempting to mount him, they found him balky, and were obliged to abandon their plan. They then forced the farmer to accompany them quite a distance to point out the road, first asking the route to Waterville, but finally deciding to take the Cordova road. Sager went with them to the edge of the town of Kilkenny, and left them in a large meadow going towards Cordova.
In this field the bandits resorted to all known means to destroy their tracks, and esconced themselves in the mysterious depths of the Big Woods, where it was impossible to track them, as the thousands of hogs which root up their living there, had almost entirely displaced the sod, and it was not an easy matter to distinguish the footprints of man or beast.
Many have the impression that the bandits were sheltered Thursday night by a notorious character living in the woods on the west side of Kilkenny, but according to the statement of those captured, they lay hidden in the thickets.
THE PURSUIT GROWS HOT.
During Thursday night excited crowds had gathered in all of the towns in the vicinity that could be reached by telegraph. Men of every class volunteered to join in the hunt, and they came armed and mounted in every conceivable style. The great majority had arms of little account, and a large portion of the volunteers were entirely defenceless. There were many intrepid men who joined in the pursuit in an earnest manner, and many younger ones who started as they would in a chicken hunt, for sport and excitement.
The telegrams had summoned the chiefs of police, detectives and [pg 26] several members of the police forces of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and at six o'clock Thursday evening, Chief King, Detective Brissette, Sergeant Clarke and patrolman Brosseau and deputy sheriff Harrison, of the former city, and Chief Munger, Detective Hoy, and officers West, Hankinson, and Shepherd, of the latter place, were on the scene of the tragedy.
Under direction of Chief King, the St. Paul squad followed the trail of the robbers under charge of Detective Brissette, while Detective Hoy and his party proceeded to Faribault intending to start from there and attempt to head off the robber band. Every point of egress from
THE BIG WOODS
was thoroughly picketed during the night, probably two hundred volunteers being engaged. Early on Friday morning Sheriff Asa Barton, of Rice county, who had been up all night arranging the guards, commenced to accept new recruits and dispatch them as rapidly as possible to the front, providing every weapon that would snap a cap, that could be obtained in the vicinity. His labors were arduous and incessant, but his splendid constitution and indomitable perseverance enabled him to endure throughout the three weeks that the hunt continued. The number of robber hunters cannot have been less than five hundred during Friday.
The pursuers dispatched from Faribault were headed by brave, intelligent men, among whom were Col. Williams, J. H. Harding, Dr. Hurd, T. Loyhed, Mr. Baxter, James Hunter and Sam Dunham, chief of police of this city.