They had picketed their horses in a deep ravine, and deployed men on the
row of high mounds commanding the prairie, and five miles down “Lost
Timber” valley. On arriving there, Dill’s pickets were carried out three
miles each way, and a watch kept for four hours. Scouts were sent down the
valley, and and the pockets or ravines examined. At two p. m., no tidings
being received, a council was held, and it was agreed that the robbers
must have changed their route. Dill had been sanguine in regard to the
Luverne route, and he, Church of Northfield, and I took a team for that
point, leaving most of the party to push on to Pipestone, on the northern
trail, knowing plenty of men could be started from Luverne. A ride of
twenty tedious miles brought us to this point at 7:30 p. m. Found the town
in an uproar of excitement, as news had been sent from Worthington and a
special train dispatched with twenty men to guard the trail passing the
town. About noon Sunday, a man named Rolfe, living eleven miles north of
town, on the west bank of Rock river, came in and reported, that at 7:30
while he was away from the house, two men called at his house and asked
for breakfast. They got off their gray horses, and went into the house.
The woman asked them to take off their rubber coats. They refused to do
so, and seemed very lame, and shuffled along,