"I know they were afraid of it," said Tom. "The robber that Brierly's squad captured said so."
"Is one of them taken?" exclaimed Bob, who hadn't heard of it before. "That's good news. Where's the other?"
"Don't know. They separated after they let you go, and Brierly captured one of them. Perhaps we shall hear something about the other one now," added Tom, directing his companion's attention to a large party of men who were at that moment discovered approaching the cabin. "We went out in squads of four, and there are a dozen men in that crowd."
"But I don't see any prisoner among them," said Bob. "They have all got guns on their shoulders, and that proves that they have not seen anything of robber number two."
As the party came nearer, the boys saw that it was made up of citizens of Bellville and Hammondsport, who had abandoned the search for the day, and were now on their way home.
They were surprised to see Bob Emerson there, safe and sound, and forthwith desired a full history of the letter which had been the means of bringing about so remarkable a series of events.
Bob protested that he was too hungry to talk, but when he saw the generous supply of bread and meat which one of the men drew from his haversack, he sat down on a log in front of the cabin and told his story.
His auditors declared that the way things had turned out was little short of wonderful, adding, as they arose to go, that they were coming out again, bright and early the next morning, to resume the search for robber number two. They were not going to remain idle at home, they said, as long as there were twenty-five hundred dollars running around loose in the woods.
When the bread and meat were all gone, and the boys were once more alone, Tom wrote the notice which Joe Morgan found pinned to the door of the cabin, and then he and Bob set out for Uncle Hallet's.