Monday night, a party, headed by Sheriff Dill and Brissette, and including
the St. Paul police, and several determined men from Northfield, after a
tedious hunt arrived at the house of John Dehn about a mile from the place
where Brisette had lost the trail on Friday night.
The detective was in a quandary not understanding how the horses at least
could have got through the line of pickets that had been maintained. One
of these animals was of a dun color, or as the country people called it “a
yaller hoss,” and would have been noticed among a cavalry regiment.
The mystery was soon to be solved however. A portion of the squad took
refuge in Dehn’s hay loft for the night, and at daylight Tuesday morning
as Mr. Mills Church, of Northfield, an old war veteran, was peeping from
his roost, he saw two hard looking horses, peering over the farm gate,
evidently envying the inviting stack of oats within.
Church immediately went to them, and found they were two of the robbers’
horses without doubt. One was a bright bay with white face and three white
feet, and the other was a handsome brown mare. Both were very thin and
showed marks of exposure, and deep rowelling on their sides. The brown had
large galls each side of her back bone made by the saddle, and these were
covered by thick scabs that had been forming at least three days. Both
wore halters, that of the bay being without a strap, while a piece about a
foot long hung to the halter of the brown, it having been chewed off by
the wearer.
The nags were well cared for, and their trail was immediately taken up
while their tracks were fresh, but the horses had stopped to graze so
often thus doubling and changing their course, that it was almost a
fruitless task. Feeling that Dehn’s house at which they were found was
probably the first one the horses saw, a