"Do you see that road?" And then, as if realizing how useless such a question was when the road was so well defined, he continued: "Wa-al, I reckon 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.