Excitement had again subsided, and after the capture of the robbers’ horses in a state indicating that they had been abandoned for several days, the opinion gained ground rapidly that the robbers had made tracks on foot and were many miles away. The hunt had virtually come to an end, was the thought of many, and a general movement was made by the pursuers toward those homes to which of late, they had become strangers. The St. Paul police had started for home, and the Minneapolis force was already there. The indefatigable and energetic sheriff of Winona, was even contemplating an abandonment of the chase when news was brought into Mankato, which at once aroused excitement to its highest pitch. A farmer had been captured by the bandits, and with arms tightly bound behind him, compelled at the muzzle of a revolver to accompany them on the road to pilot the way beyond Mankato. Hearing that this unfortunate was the man in charge of Mr. Shaubut’s farm, the writer sought out the man DUNNING, who told him that about six o’clock on Wednesday morning the 13th, he started from his house in search of the cows. He had scarcely passed the barn going towards the woods when six men came upon him. They were for the most part powerfully built men, well dressed, with linen dusters and blankets strapped up in bridles. The men came up to him and said they were LOOKING FOR ROBBERS, and guessed he was one of them. He protested that he was not, when one said they would take him with them anyhow, and proceeded to bind his hands behind him with a bridle rein. They then insisted, upon his showing them the way past Mankato, so that they might strike the Minnesota above, asking him questions as to whether they would be likely to find any boats upon the river, and if it was possible to ford or swim across. Dunning begged them to let him go, when they told him they were THE NORTHFIELD ROBBERS, but if he would show them the way and keep a silent tongue in his head they would send him a handsome present. He still begged to be released, stating that he had a delicate wife and young children, and if he should be away from the farm he would lose his situation, and then what would his family do during the winter? The robbers thought he seemed a good sort of a fellow, and if they could only trust him, perhaps they might let him return, but could they trust him? Dunning protested by all that was sacred that they might, and promised if they would only let him return home, he would not breathe to a living soul that he had seen there and he expressed a hope that they would get through safe and sound without being captured. The robbers held a short consultation among themselves, in which Dunning thought he heard proposals of shooting him on the spot. It was to him A MOMENT OF DREADFUL SUSPENSE,