ce they could do nothing to aid
him, Ralph beckoned to Bob to leave the room, for he was anxious to
learn what was contained in the paper, and wished that some one should
share the secret with him.

"This is what George had in his hand when we found him," he said, when
they were out of the house, "and I think it will, perhaps, explain who
it was who tried to murder him."

Bob stood breathlessly waiting for Ralph to open the paper which was
crumpled tightly up in that almost death clutch, and as he saw it, he
uttered a cry of surprise and anger.

It was a fragment of the description of the wood-lot which had been
found in the carriage when the thieves left it.

"Those men have done this," cried Bob, as he clenched his hands in
impotent rage--"the ones whom George would not help catch after they had
stolen his team. They knew he had this paper, and when they saw him,
they either tried simply to get possession of it, George resisting, or
at the first attempted to kill him."

"They can't be very far from here," said Ralph, as if wondering what
other crime they would attempt to commit before they left.

"No, and they shan't get very far, either. I'll send Dick over to Sawyer
for the officers, and if it is possible, we'll have those fellows where
they can't do any more mischief."

Dick was only too willing to go when he heard what Bob had to tell him,
and in the team he had driven over in he started at nearly as rapid a
pace as Jim had.

Very shortly after he had gone, Jim returned. The first physician was
from Bradford, and he had met him on the road, while the second he had
found in Sawyer, having gone there to visit a patient. Both were said to
be very skillful, and Jim had sensibly concluded that there was no
necessity of getting any more.

To him the boys told of the discovery they had made regarding the scrap
of paper, and had they followed his advice, they would have started in
search of the villains then and there, without waiting the tardy
movements of the officers.

But both Ralph and Bob thought their place just then was with their
friend, rather than searching for those who had assaulted him, and they
persuaded Dick to forego his idea of making a personal search for the
men.

It was not long that the boys were in suspense as to the report of the
physicians, for hardly had they finished discussing the discovery they
had made as to who had done the cruel deed, when one of the medical
gentlemen came fr