In speaking of the dead men at Northfield, the writer said that there was some uncertainty whether the big man was Miller or Pitts. The prisoner promptly said, with a smile, “It was not Miller.”
He expressed himself freely as to his poor
OPINION OF THE DETECTIVES,
and gave an account of his party's wanderings from Mankato. He said all six crossed the railroad bridge together. They came right through the town on the railroad track. They knew, he said, the other bridge was guarded, for he saw the guards; and then, hastily correcting himself, he said:
“We knew the bridge was watched, and then hastily crossed over on the trestle bridge. We got some melons out of a garden, and on the right of the railroad, a little further down, we got two old hens and one chicken, the only fowls on the place, and then went on to the place where we were disturbed when getting our breakfast ready. We had it all ready to cook when”
WE HEARD THE MEN
“running and shouting up the line and as quickly as we could we got [pg 55] out and crossed the State road (Garden City road.) If we had not left our bridles, the police would not have known we had been there. I had but one arm and I seized my blankets. If I had had two, I should have tried to carry away some of the chicken, for we were dreadfully hungry. After crossing the road we went southeast to the river, ran half a mile up the stream and there laid down all day.”
Asked if he did not hear shots fired, he said he did, and saw one of the pursuers within twenty yards of him,
“At night,” he continued, “we made across the railroad track again, crossing two or three miles up towards Lake Crystal, and then took a northerly course to the road running due west from Mankato. We then entered the Minnesota timber, where we stayed two nights. Then we made the first of the Linden chain of lakes, I think, and remained in that neighborhood three nights, where we got some chickens. Up to this time we had been”