The attack in the barn was so utterly unexpected and so suddenly made that Matt and Carl hardly realized what had happened until it was all over. Although a little dazed by the whirl of events, and still partly blinded by the gleam from the dark lantern, the king of the motor boys had his wits about him.
The letter was gone, but that was no great loss. The value of the letter lay in the use Matt had intended to make of it, by discovering who had placed it under the rubber mat in the tonneau. Such a discovery would have given the young motorist a clue as to who "James Trymore" really was.
Neither Matt nor Carl were very much damaged by their rough experience. In their rush from the barn they were only a few yards behind the men who had attacked them, and they would have been right on the others' heels if Carl had not made a mistake and caught hold of Matt just at the moment when there was no time for delay.
Matt, who was in the lead, heard a sound of running around the side, and toward the rear, of the barn. Flinging away in that direction, he came out on an alley, with the sounds he had been following abruptly blotted into silence. While he stood there, wondering which way the men had gone, a pounding of horses' hoofs jumped out of the stillness, somewhere to the left. He turned barely in time to see the forms of two mounted men melting away in the blank darkness.
Matt was disappointed. He had not expected to overtake the men, but he had hoped to come close enough so that he could get a fairly good look at them.
"Who vas dem fellers, anyvay, und vat vas der mix-oop aboudt?" came the voice of Carl as he pushed toward Matt through the gloom.
"That's too deep for me, Carl," returned Matt. "There were two of them, and they had their horses in the alley. One of them grabbed that Trymore letter just as I was going to put it in the car."
"Vell, der ledder don'd amount to nodding. Ve know vat it hat on der insite, und dot's plenty for us. Be jeerful."
"I guess I'll have to revise my opinion of Tomlinson. Neither of those horsemen could by any possibility have been him, and it's a cinch they were in the barn to get that letter. We blundered into their hands too slick for any use! As things look now, Carl, Tomlinson is straight goods."
"I t'ink he vas some skinflints, all righdt, aber dot's der vorst vat can be saidt oof Domlinson. Dose two fellers vas de vones vat dry to rop der car, hey?"