CHAPTER VIII
A Man Disappears
Trafford sent a hasty note to McManus,
postponing the afternoon appointment, and
made ready to visit the logging drives at work along
the Kennebec. It was certain that no physician in
Millbank had set a broken shoulder or arm within
the twenty-four hours; no man of the character
sought had left by any of the trains or stages, and
the river afforded the only unguarded means of escape.
A canoe or river-driver's boat could easily
come and go unnoticed, and it tallied with other
points in hand that the assailants were connected
with the logging interests. Another point in the
case was that, in almost all the large gangs of
drivers, there was sure to be some one roughly skilled
in surgery, who could attend to minor accidents and
even, temporarily, to those of a severer nature, such
as are apt to occur, often at points far distant from
skilled practitioners. Such a man could, under
