CHAPTER XXIVWAITING
Devlin had a change of mind during the intervening hours, and at breakfast he announced with his usual gravity that they would not make the trip that day after all. He had some important business to attend to first, he said, and would leave them alone that afternoon. On Monday evening they would go.
He seemed not at all concerned about the attic but just before he was leaving that afternoon, he started to remove the ladder.
“Aw, leave it there, won’t you?” Skippy asked imploringly. “Nickie an’ me, we get sick of the dark rooms downstairs an’ up there we can play cards an’ all without a light. Gee whiz....”
Skippy won.
Devlin’s cold, staring eyes glittered more than ever after he gave his consent and there was a calm about him when he went out that left the boys perplexed.
They rushed to the window when they heard him slam the metal door of the woodshed. Eagerly they watched while he stalked with measured steps toward the barn. Then they saw him backing out slowly in a blue coupe that was distinctly second-hand.
“Another car!” Nickie gasped.
“Gee, I expected it, an’ I didn’t!” was Skippy’s comment. “Did we hear Timmy say that old sedan went over into the lake, or didn’t we?”
“We didand how! You’re right, kid, it looks like I’m goofey about that spook stuff. We won’t argue about it no more. What we gonna do all day, hah?”
“Work on those bars,” Skippy grinned. “Gee whiz, Nick, tell the truth, I didn’t think we’d have the chance. I thought he had us where he wanted.”
Seven hours later, they were not so sure but that Devlin would be triumphant after all. They had worked sedulously during that time but there was only a little give in the top bar and the boys were well nigh discouraged.
Sitting atop the trunk they surveyed the bars ruefully. Another day was drawing to its close, another day that brought them nearer to the Fate which only Devlin held the key to. Skippy felt weary and sick.
“There’s no use, I guess, Nick. It’s comin’ out like Timmy said—we can’t do a thing till he takes us outa here for our turn.”
“Yeah, then we gotta use our beans an’ scram. But it’s gotme, kid; we saw in that book how much money he expects from us. How can he get it when we’re dead?”
“I dunno. We ain’t gonna hash this mystery business all over again—I’m too blamed tired. All I’m sure of is that Devlin gets money for us an’ sometime or other he’ll wanta kill us for some reason. Timmy said it was a trick about him shippin’ us west, so that’s the night he does it—always at night, you know that. When that night comes for us, we just gotta outguess him.”
“An’ it’s about a month from the time he takes us to a sawbones,” Nickie said mournfully. “Well, if we can’t do nothin’ else about it, I’m gonna pull myself together. But one thing, I hope he takes us together—see. If you go first or I go—holy smoke, I can’t stand it if he takes us separate. I’m scared I’ll lose my nerve—you know it?”
“Forget it, Nick. Whatever he does, be foxy an’ forget about me n’ I’ll do the same. Gee whiz, from what Timmy said he don’t tie you down—if he did that we wouldn’t have a chance. Now quit worryin’, an’ let’s get down before he comes. I’ll hide the things again an’ maybe he’ll be out a lotta the time an’ we can try it again. If we keep pullin’ on them bars we’ll weaken ’em after awhile even if it’s weeks.”
“Yeah, weeks too late.”
Nickie’s spirits rose considerably a little later. Devlin had come in with a pail of chicken fricassee and an apple pie, announcing that he had stopped at a lunch wagon to give the boys a treat. Skippy almost decided that all his suspicions had been unfounded.
The problem was a tormenting one. Could anyone be so cruel? Devlin’s face, always a study, was no nearer revealing what lay behind his grave features than on the day they had first seen him. Just now he was as much absorbed in the chicken fricassee as the boys were.
A full stomach does much toward comforting the harassed human being, and Nickie was no exception to the rule. The keen look of defiance came back into his eyes and he settled back in his chair, quite forgetting for the time that the man who had so generously fed him, was the man whom he had expected would kill him.
Skippy’s full stomach, while giving him much comfort, did not disarm him completely. He sat back in his chair, noting Nickie’s peaceful face beside him and Devlin’s mask-like countenance across the table. Someone had to be ready and on guard—Devlin had a price for everything—even chicken fricassee.
It came sooner than he expected. Devlin was finishing his pie and washing it down with great draughts of coffee. “Well, boys,” he said, genially, “I suppose both of you swim, eh?”
Skippy kicked Fallon under the table and said, “Nope, not a stroke—neither of us. Do we, Nick?”
“Nah. Ain’t it a shame, hah? We oughta.”
“Yes, yes. It’s something every boy ought to know.” Devlin got up and his bulk seemed greater than ever. His face had resumed its thoughtful expression and the glitter had returned to his eyes. “Well, I’ll be going up now—a little business I got to attend to. If you boys wash up the dishes you can have a game of cards before bedtime, eh?”
They listened as he walked through the hall and up the stairs. Skippy waited until he heard the man’s step in his own room before he said, “Well, he’s begun workin’ on us all right, an’ I trumped his ace right off the bat.”
“How, kid?”
“He expected us to say we could swim.”
“How did....”
“’cause I’m layin’ for him all the time from now on. Whatever he expected to do if we’d said yes, I don’t know. But I know, he’s aimin’ to try the car trick on us an’ he wanted to make sure things wouldn’t go wrong. He can’t afford to have us not drown when he’s countin’ on it, can he?”
Nickie put his elbows on the table and cupped his chin. “You mean we gotta go through with it an’ take the chance that he can’t kill us ’cause we can swim?”
“If there ain’t any other chance, we gotta.”
“Well, I’m licked!” Nickie said hopelessly.
But he wasn’t ... not yet....