and then, coming to a side road, took to that, running as fast as their wind and strength permitted.
In the meantime Dick, hearing Crabtree groaning, came down in the sitting room to look at the sufferer. The man was still flat on his back.
"Oh, my leg!" he groaned. "Oh my leg! Can't you get a doctor?"
"Perhaps,—later on," answered Dick.
"Oh, Rover, I never thought I would come to this!" whined the criminal. "Oh, the pain!"
"We'll do what we can for you, Crabtree. You had better lie still for the present."
Dick listened in the hallway. As nobody seemed to be at the garret stairway, he ran outside, to learn how Tom was faring.
"Tom! Tom! What happened to you?" he cried, in horror, when he beheld his brother on the ground. Then he saw the footstool and a cut on Tom's head and understood what had occurred. The dangling rope told the rest of the story.
"They have gotten away!" he groaned. "And after all our efforts to hold them prisoner's until help came! Too bad!"
He wanted to go after the brokers, but just now his concern was entirely for his brother. He turned Tom over and then ran for some
