CHAPTER XXIX
A SLIP
Frost drove away from the clearing with a confidence that communicateditself to Nickie. He was talkative, affable and even informative.Devlin, he told them, had searched out the abandoned house after histalk with the old hermit when they had had a breakdown with their carsome ten miles from the bog. Their hunt hadn't been an easy one--theymade the journey three times before they found the place.
"But the boss is that persistent," the man was saying. "He don't giveup. That's why I ast you kids to tell the dicks as soon's you get out,'cause if he don't find you by tonight, he'll be hoppin' off after me."
"Did he tell you anything about poor Timmy, huh?" Skippy asked. "Did hetell you that he come back that night?"
"He didn't tell me nothin' about him excep' that he had trouble," Frostanswered truthfully. "But I know what you kids think about it--I thinkthe same thing. He said he could never go to Albany and collect onTimmy so you know what that means without me tellin'."
Skippy couldn't talk about it--it was all too horrifying. Nickie musthave felt the same way for he was silent and his dark eyes kept to thenarrow woods trail as if he dared not look on either side. Somewhere inthat bog was Timmy, free from Devlin at last.
They rode along in silence after that and though they were all a bitnervous they felt that courage would come when a safe distance had beenput between them and the terrible house. Though Devlin was not there inbody he seemed to be there in spirit, and they longed to get out of thewoods and into the open where he could no longer wield his power.
It was about five o'clock. Bits of warm sunshine filtered through thehigher branches of the trees but below the shadows were gathering andwhere the growth was thick a gloom had already penetrated.
When they had been riding for some little time, Frost said, "The bossis goin' to see Smithson, the insurance man, I think. He lives inHillbriar near that doctor you went to see. He must have some placeelse to go, I been thinkin', 'cause it wouldn't take him that long tojust go there."
The boys were about to agree when they rounded a turn in the narrowtrail and saw just ahead the path which Devlin had seemed so interestedin on that memorable Monday night. Also, they saw Devlin sitting in hiscar as if he had just climbed in and was ready to start away. He washeaded in the same direction that they were.
Frost swerved the car with such force that it almost turned on itsside. "Scram, kids!" he said hoarsely. "I'll have to too! He'llknow--he'll know I'm double-crossin' him!"
Skippy was out of the coupe with Nickie jumping after him. They graspedhands instinctively, and broke through the thick brush running blindly,wildly, but running as they had never run before. Devlin's terriblevoice seemed to follow them everywhere for his shouts rang out time andagain and they heard Frost scream several times.
Not once did they look back. They could hear the crackling brush andthey thought that Frost must be somewhere in their wake. They thoughtno more about the man than that for they were too intent on their ownpreservation. They must not, at any cost, stop until Devlin's funerealechoes were left far behind.
Darkness had almost overtaken them before they had the courage to sitdown and rest on a fallen log. Muddy and scratched from head to foot,they would have presented a comical picture if it had not been for thepiteous expression on their faces. Mosquitoes had already got in someof their work as the great red lumps on their hands and foreheadsindicated.
"We gotta slap mud on thick, Nickie," Skippy said wearily. "I read onceabout a kid what was lost in a swamp and he did that and saves hislife. These blamed things can eat a feller up--you know it?"
"I feel like I'm ate up a'ready," Nickie answered pathetically. "Kid,you think we gotta stay in this graveyard all night?"
"It's night now an' where are we? There's no use stumblin' 'round inthe dark, is there? We might walk plunk into that bog an' you heardyourself what Frost said about it. You don't get out once you walk intosome parts."
"Wonder where Frost is, hah? I don't remember when we stopped hearin'him behind us. I s'pose we oughta stopped, but honest, kid, I felt likeDevlin most had wings, his voice sounded so near all the time."
"Frost knows this place better'n we do. Gee whiz, I wish he coulda keptup with us. But he didn't, so we gotta make the best of it. I'm 'fraidto lie down in the mud, ain't you, Nickie?"
"You said it, kid! The mosquitas'll bite right through our pants. Guesswe'll have to be like the birds an' roost in a tree all night, hah?"
"Yeah, I was thinkin' that too. Gee, we won't get much sleep--we_can't_ sleep, 'cause maybe we'll fall out!" Skippy yawned withexhaustion. "We gotta take turns watchin' each other."
They gave up that plan after a half-hour's sentry duty on two of thelower limbs of a poplar tree. Not only were their positionsuncomfortable, but the mosquitoes annoyed them despite their masks ofmud. Then, too, an owl had taken up its position in a nearby tree andhooted into the awful darkness until they felt they could stand it nolonger.
"Sounds like Devlin," said the superstitious Nickie. "Sounds like hisspook."
"How can it be, if he ain't dead?" Skippy whispered back.
"Aw, ain't my aunt told me that some guys is so bad, they haveinfloo-ence on things 'round them? Well, I heard owls near that houselike you did, an' how do you know Devlin didn't put the bead on one of'em an' make it just like he is?"
"Pretty soon you'll be tellin' me you believe in imps an' all thatstuff in fairy stories," Skippy said, with a little laugh.
"Aw, shut up!"
Skippy was silent, for the owl had taken the stage and drowned them outcompletely.