mounted and on foot, shadowed by every tree and covered by every bush. Could it be possible for an escape through such a formidable line!
Driving up from Rush Lake towards evening weary and hungry from the day's exertion, the writer was hailed by three men hastening across from heavy timber to the right of the Garden City road. Halting, he was told excitedly that the three men crossing from Garden City came upon a dense thicket overhanging the Blue Earth river where they heard voices. They stopped and listened when they distinctly heard a voice.
“There is a good shelter here, why should we move.”
It was raining at the time. The men from Garden City waited and watched, but they saw nothing. After some time they fired off their shot guns, but no response was made. For four hours the men kept guard over the place, and as night was coming on they thought they would go out in search of help.
The writer at once alighted from his buggy and being joined by some dozen armed men, they approached the spot indicated. The cover was almost impenetrably dense, and it was impossible to see a dozen yards in any direction, and the hunt ended in failure, some of the party believing that the three men from Garden city had given way to a strong imagination. But at
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE YOUNGERS,
at Madelia, the writer was told that after leaving the camp at Minneopa Falls, the band went in a south-easterly direction to the Blue Earth, and then followed up the river for half an hour where they lay in a dense thicket all day. The men in concealment heard the pursuers, heard the shots, and saw one at least of the party within easy pistol range of them. At nightfall many of the hunters returned to Mankato, but still more remained out all night performing picket duty after an arduous day's march through the woods and over a rough country.
THE LINE ADVANCED.
The search of Thursday having proved fruitless, as night approached the line was thrown some five miles in advance due west, and a cordon [pg 40] of pickets was stretched from Judson, on the Minnesota river, to Garden City, on the Watonwan river, a distance of at least thirteen miles. The line passed through the village of Lake Crystal, the pickets being liberally disposed at all of the roads, crossings, fords and ferries. Brissette, Harrison and Clark, aided by W. Erwin, of St. Paul, (a most admirable organizer and active commander,) and Baxter, of Faribault, having charge of the arrangements, and acting under the orders of Gen. Pope, who had changed his headquarters to Lake Crystal. The town board of that place responded with the most commendable promptitude to every expressed desire of the leaders, providing provisions for a large number of men and horses, and furnishing transportation for the pickets to their several locations.
At an early hour in the evening the picketing was completed, and the commander-in-chief with his aids watched through the night, momentarily expecting the arrival of