ckon that the same team you are huntin' after was driv up that road
about an hour or so ago. It was a small pair of dark chestnut hosses,
an' good ones, with a fancy buggy, an' two young fellers drivin'."

"Where does that road lead to?" asked Bob, excitedly.

"That's the joke of it," said the farmer, with a laugh. "It don't lead
nowhere 'cept inter my wood-lot, an' that's what made me notice ther
team so perticularly, 'cause I couldn't make out what they wanted up
there. I tell you what it is, boys, you've got your hoss-thieves in a
trap, an' you kin pull 'em out whenever you want to."

"Are you sure that there isn't any way out of that? Can't they strike
the main road by driving across some field?" asked George.

"Wa-al, I've driv over that road as many as forty times every year for
the last thirty, haulin' down wood, an' I wouldn't undertake to git a
wheel-barrer out any other way than I went in. You kin stay here an'
ketch 'em when they come out, or go in after 'em--_they'll be there_!"

CHAPTER XIX.

CLOSE QUARTERS.

It hardly seemed possible to the boys that, after the mishap which it
seemed would give the thieves all the time they needed to make good
their escape, they could be so near to them that their capture seemed
certain.

But the farmer insisted that there was no outlet to the road; that a
team answering to the description of the one George had lost had been
driven in there, and that it had not come out. Therefore, there could be
no question but that they had the thieves in a trap, as the farmer had
said, and all that was necessary was to go and get them or the team.

At first they were about to start out without any plan whatever, intent
only on getting the horses as quickly as possible; but George realized
in time that, secure as the thieves appeared to be against escape, all
might be changed by too much precipitation.

If they should rush in recklessly, the men might get past them by
concealing the team in the bushes until they had passed that particular
point, and then the road would be clear before them, unless the farmer
could succeed in stopping them.

It was necessary, therefore, that, in going up this road, which they
were told was about two miles long, they should not only see where the
thieves had gone in, but where it would be possible for them to come
out, in case they should succeed in making a detour through the woods.

The farmer, after listening to the discussion which