CHAPTER XI
OVERHEARD
Sleep wouldn't come to Skippy that night. Hours after Timmy haddejectedly gone to his cot and Nickie had sunk into deep, untroubledslumber beside him, he lay on the hot bed worried and lonely. Aunt Minand Carlton Conne seemed separated from him by a dark and terribleabyss, and he shivered with the fear that he might not get back againto the people and places that typified law, order and safety.Particularly safety.
He hadn't any illusions now. Clearly, nothing but a miracle would gethim out of the web which had so entangled him the moment he had beenplaced in Dean Devlin's car. Nothing save an almost impossiblecombination of favorable circumstances would make it possible for himto get word to Mr. Conne. And how, if it were true that Devlin keptthem imprisoned until he saw fit to embark them on the dark, mysterious"job," could those circumstances occur so that he might be of any realhelp to Carlton Conne? He despaired of any such good fortune.
The breeze was not strong enough to penetrate through the shutteredwindow now. Nothing but damp, humid heat found its way to his burningcheeks. He felt the stillness about the air augured a heavy storm andsoon he heard thunder in the distance.
The buzz of crickets, the tin-like sound of locusts vied with the deepthroated chorus of frogs about the house. Once an owl lent its eeriehoot to this droning night symphony and, as if in answer, anotherchorus of insects filled the air with dismal chantings.
Skippy stood it as long as he could, then got up and tiptoed to thewindow to get a breath of air. Through the bars he could see thequarter moon, a shimmering bit of silver light gleaming upon the swampand here and there transforming it into pools of shining, blacklacquer. Overhead, however, sullen clouds were slowly trespassing andit would be only minutes before the lonely place would be surrounded bydarkness and storm.
He clung to one of the bars and peered down upon the roof of thewoodshed just below the window. It would be an easy jump down there, hedecided--easy, if it were not for the five long strips of iron that soeffectually barred the way. Crude and amateurish though they looked,Skippy knew that they had been put there to withstand any such feebleattacks as his two bare hands might make upon them.
While he was digesting this fact he became aware of voices, Frost's andDevlin's, coming from the hall. He stepped toward the door noiselesslyand pressed his ear close against it.
The men were not in the hall as he had at first thought, they were intheir room with the door ajar. It was evident that they had intended toconverse in whispers, but presently they were launched upon an argumentand caution was forgotten.
"Tell me if you can," Devlin was saying angrily, "what I'm going to dowith those two Greeks, eh? It isn't enough that you didn't discoverwhat they were before we brought them all the way here, but on top ofit, you tell me I'll think of what to do about them! _I'll think_, eh?"He sneered. "All I can think of is that they're Greeks and that I don'tlook anything like a Greek or talk anything like one! How can I passthem off as my sons, eh?"
"Easy, boss, easy," Frost said placatingly, "I didn't know they wasGreeks no more'n you. They was sentenced before I gets into court. Theones I counted on was that Nickie and that other kid, Dippy and thatsmart-looking youngster John Doe. You coulda knocked me cold with afeather when Fallon tags the Greeks along. There wasn't no time toargue, was there?"
"All right--all right," Devlin boomed. "Just tell me what I'm going todo with 'em! They can't go back and tell what they've seen here and I'mnot going to go to the trouble of getting them off my hands withoutgetting some money out of it, that's all there is to it!"
"O. K., boss. It's soft--soft." Frost's voice was rasping yet servile."There's black wigs a guy can buy, ain't there? Well, I'll grab me one,fix myself up like a grease ball, talk spig, take the kids one at atime and try my hand at your racket."
"Now you're talking, Frost. Take one--say, to Pittsburgh, eh? You'll befather and son looking for work in the mills. And I'd only aim for theminimum price on both of them. They're not worth taking any chances onbig money. The other Greek you could take--say to Maine. That's puttinga safe distance between, eh?"
"Sure thing, boss," Frost crowed. "And say, listen, why not lemme cleanup the job right on the spot, hey? No use makin' extra trips back here.I can work it careful."
"Hmp--it's an idea, Frost. We'll dope it out after tomorrow night andTimmy's off my mind. Don't try to do anything until then." There was apause, then: "Do you think he's wise to anything? I sort of feel thathe was doing more than just whisper his family history to those otherkids."
"Nah; what could he say, hey? He ain't seen nothin' no more'n theothers. You're just gettin' nervous, that's all. But I'll tell youwhat, Dean, you _will_ make them kids wise that something's phoney withyour big heart racket, when you don't even trust 'em unless you got thekey to their room in your pocket. You're puttin' the lid flat down andscarin' the life out of 'em too soon. Now if I was you, I'd let 'emloose in the house. Maybe if you'd done that in Chi, Tucker wouldn'tgot away like he done. If he'd known where you hung out he'd been backand you'd cashed in on him."
"Well, I didn't and that's my funeral," Devlin said in measured tones."I'm only glad Tucker wasn't caught so he could spill out my racket. Iguess he got away all right or we'd have seen some flat-footed dickkeeping our trail warm before this. Anyway, I think you're right aboutlocking up the kids. I'll make 'em think I trust 'em even if I don't."
"O. K.," Frost chuckled, "I'll do it right now and give 'em a surprisein the morning. Long's I got the keys to the downstairs doors in mypockets, we ain't got no cause to worry that they'll sneak."
Skippy did not wait to hear more. He made a running jump from the doorto the bed and had assumed a restful, sleeping posture before Frost'skey scraped in the lock. But the man made no effort to enter. Instead,he turned on his heel and recrossed the hall to his room and presentlya deep silence pervaded the house.
Not many seconds later, the storm broke and the dark, eerie housetrembled and groaned like some stricken thing in the whistling gale.