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 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. Nothing was heard of the bandits during Thursday night, but on Friday, it was found that they had started in a westerly direction. It was difficult to pick their trail, as men and horses shod in every manner had passed over the roads during the night and morning. Rumors of all sorts came in from all points, and the leaders scarcely knew what to do, but they wisely determined to maintain their line of pickets. It can truly be said that these knights of the road traveled on their reputation, and they were looked upon as such desperate and sanguinary foes that few men would have been willing to meet them except at considerable odds. The pickets had been liberally placed, but the squads were necessarily small, as an area of more than four miles square was guarded. At most places only two or three guards had been placed, and through one of these squads a