Skippy felt Nickie's hand on his arm and Timmy crowded up close to bothof them. For a second there was no sound, then they heard someone movein the doorway and presently Barker's voice pierced the darkness.
"What have you been whispering about in here, Timmy?" he demanded.
"_Whisperin'?_" Timmy's voice trembled ever so little. "Aw, I was onlytellin' these guys how you got me outa the pen an' they was tellin' mehow slick you helped them--that's all."
Skippy was certain that Barker sighed. In any event, he said, "Hmph!You better let them go to sleep and do your talking tomorrow!" He shutthe door as swiftly as he had opened it--the key turned in the lock andall was silence.
Nickie was alert, tense. He nudged Skippy and Timmy and then he movedhis lips. "Us three can cram into bed," he said so softly that the boyshad to strain their ears to hear. "We'll pull a blanket over our headsso's we can talk--see? It'll be hot, but we should worry, hah?"
Skippy was worried, but he didn't say so for he, too, was anxious tolearn from Timmy what lay behind Barker's grave, almost broodingexterior. He undressed and hopped in on one side of Timmy while Nickiecrawled in on the other and if they felt stifled as they whisperedunder the blanket for three-quarters of an hour or more, they were notaware of it, so intensely interesting was the story to which they werelistening.
"Where do I come from?" Timmy repeated in answer to Skippy's question."Albany. Barker comes in the jug where I'm doin' five years--forstealin'. Well, he looks like a minister an' I think he passes it outthat he is one. Anyway, he spies me an' gets talkin' kinda religiousan' fatherly while the guard's around. When the bloke strolls off,Barker quick drops the fatherly act an' wants to know would I like tocrash. Sure, I tells him. He tells me to be set the next night--thathe'll be waitin'. When he leaves he slips me fifty bucks an' tells meto slip it to the guard I think'll look the other way for that muchjack."
"You made it, huh?" Skippy asked.
"Easy. Fifty bucks is big money for them guards. The one I stake letsme slip without no trouble at all. Barker was waitin' outside in a bigclosed car."
"Frost with him?" Skippy asked curiously.
"Nope. I never seen that grinnin' skunk till Barker brings me down tothis hole. That's a month an' a half ago. Barker took me straight to ahouse in Albany where he said he rented a room. On the way he tells methat from then on I should say I'm his son. So I do. We only stay inthe house three days. I'm willin' to keep under cover so he tells thelandlady an' everybody I ain't feelin' so well, that's the reason Idon't go out. Barker steps out plenty an' I hear him talkin' to thelandlady down the hall."
"What'd they talk about?" Skippy asked.
"Sure--it was nothin' much. A lotta boloney! Barker makes the damethink he's one grand old man--all for his wild son--all that bunk.Anyways, the last day we're there he drags me out right after dark.Takes me to a doctor. When I ast him what for, he says that's hisbusiness; that I should act like a sulky son. Well, I do it. The docgimme the up an' down an' says O. K. So we go back to the house an' thelandlady hands Barker a telegram that I found out afterward was fromFrost. It says somethin' about grandma bein' sick; that he should comehome to New York. It was signed Joe."
"Then you packed up an' come here, I bet," Skippy said.
"Sure," Timmy murmured. "He leaves the telegram on the bureau an' downin the hall he gives the landlady a coupla weeks' rent. Tells her if weain't back by then, he'll send the dough every week till we do getback. He give her a song and dance bout wantin' a farm when he comeback an' that he wanted the room to come back to so's he'd have a placewhile he was lookin'. When we come away he tells me it's a lottaboloney he give her; that he only wanted the room till this littlebusiness broke O. K. He says he ain't got no idea of goin' back there."
"Mm," said Nickie, "sounds like he was buildin' an alibi for hisself,hah?"
"That's what I gets thinkin'," Timmy admitted. "Anyways, we ride allnight an' plenty next mornin' till we hit a woods in the mountainswhere Barker parked his car way in the trees. We slep' there allafternoon, then start ridin' again when the sun was goin' down. Boutnine or so we come here. Frost's here. So's two kids bout ourage--Willie Meehan, an' Sammie Brown. Next day we get comparin'things--Willie comes from Boston an' Sammie from Syracuse. They crashedjugs like me, with Barker's help. What's more they all stayed in a cityroom a coupla days like me an' just before they leave a telegram comestellin' Barker he's gotta hustle to New York on business or that oldstuff bout his dying grandmother. Anyways it's Frost that always sends'em."
"An' those kids," Skippy asked eagerly, "did they say they wereBarker's sons an' go to a doctor like you?"
"Sure. It's the same old line--he'll do the same with you guys too.Blamed if I know his racket, but when I'm here about a week, Williesays Barker's sendin' him west that night. Willie's here a little overa month then. Seems he don't keep kids much longer'n that--I'm overduenow!" He laughed grimly. "Anyways, he beats it with Willie an' we wasglad he was gettin' a break an' on his way. So two days after Barkercomes back--it's at night like he always comes an' goes an' Sammy an'me's sleepin' in this room. Frost and Barker think we're dead'sdoornails so when they come upstairs they get arguin' an' forget howloud they talk. Well, I'm awake and how! I hear the whole works."
"_Gee!_" Skippy breathed, happy in the thought that now perhaps hewould learn something of value to Mr. Conne, when he should be sofortunate as to see the detective again.
"Yeah, I said a lotta things like that when I was listening," Timmyconfided. "I heard Barker say somethin' about that Willie wouldn't gothrough. So Frost asks him what he did then. Barker says he had to dothe job hisself. Frost laughs when he hears that. He tells Devlin hebetter plan his jobs better if he don't wanta take the hot squat."
"_Devlin?_" Skippy asked breathlessly.
"Yeah, I forgot to tell--Barker's an alias. Devlin's his right moniker.I found it out when I was here two days."
"So Frost told him he might burn?" Nickie asked, as if he was turningthis odd warning over in his mind. "And that's what makes you thinkBarker's a killer--'cause Frost cracked that?"
"Yeah--sure. What else? Sammy promised he'd try an' get word back to mesomehow so's to lemme know what job Barker wanted him to do, but heknew an' I knew it couldn't be done. Barker'd most likely send him toofar away afterward. He went a coupla weeks ago. I been alone since,wonderin' an' worryin' when my turn'd come an' what it'd be!" Timmytook a deep breath and almost sobbed. "If it's a killin' job--I ain'tgoin' through. I ain't gonna pull no trigger on nobody for Barker ornobody else!"
"Me, neither!" Nickie asserted flatly. "Looks like Barker springs us'cause it's easier than springin' older guys in the big house. Then hegets us for a job an' if anybody's grabbed it'll be us 'cause the lawfigures us future criminals anyway--see? Ten to one he dopes it wewon't squeal 'cause he's did us a favor."
"Just what _I_ think!" Timmy agreed.
Not having the lawless squint upon such matters, Skippy did not knowwhat to think. His active mind was full of plausible answers to theproblem, yet somehow he could find no convincing explanation as toDevlin's real motive. Why did the man, in each case, hire a room andhave the boy pose as his son? Why was each boy required to go with himto a physician? There seemed no answer to those questions. Particularlywas he puzzled as to why Devlin should accord them all thisprisoner-like treatment while they were awaiting release.
He got nowhere along this line. He always ended by asking himself thequestion: was Devlin as grim of soul as he was of features? Some innervoice was ever prompt in answering this query of his and it was alwaysthe same.