he gave a sudden start. "What
about my papers? Are they safe?"

The boys looked around, but saw no papers of any kind in the room.

"I had them in my bag. I brought them in here to look them over, and to
do some writing at the table."

"Well, there's no bag here now, or papers either," announced Randy.

"Then those rascals must have taken them! That was probably why they
knocked me down. They wanted to rob me."

"But who attacked you, Dad?" questioned Jack.

"That I don't know, Son. I was seated at the table with the open bag
beside me, and was looking over some of the documents I had brought from
the safe deposit vault in Wichita Falls when I heard a noise behind me
near the door. I was just about to get up to see what it meant, when all
of a sudden I received a terrible crack on the back of the head. I
turned around, and then somebody aimed another blow at me that caught me
on the left temple. Then everything seemed to dance before my eyes, and
I guess I must have gone down in a heap on the floor. And that's all I
knew until I found you supporting me and bathing my forehead."

"It must have been those oil-well fellows!" ejaculated Fred.

"I think I see a light!" almost shouted Jack. "Nappy and Slugger were in
this plot. They made us go away out of town just so we wouldn't be here
with my dad when the other fellows attacked him!"

"I guess you're right," answered Randy.

"What's this you are saying?" questioned Dick Rover, rather feebly.

In a few words the boys explained the trick Nappy Martell and Slugger
Brown had played on them.

"Yes, I guess you are right. It must have been a part of the game," said
Jack's father. "And are you sure my bag and everything that was in it
are gone?"

"Yes, there isn't a single paper in this room," answered Jack. "And when
we came up we found the door to your room locked, so it isn't likely
they are there."

"They must have dug out the minute they knocked me over and got the
papers," answered Dick Rover. "Probably they were afraid you or somebody
else might come up and catch them at their dastardly work. As it is, it
is queer somebody didn't see them."

"There happens to be no one down in the office but the young clerk, and
he's half asleep," answered Randy. "Besides that, those fellows may have
come in by the back way. Did you catch sight of them at all?"

"I can't say that I did, Randy. The first blow dazed me, and while I
remember something of two or three forms