CHAPTER XVIII
THE SEARCH
The cellar yielded nothing in their search but mouldy rubbish, ancientcobwebs and the stone crock which Frost had indicated as their watersupply. A broken shovel which Skippy salvaged from one of the rubbishpiles was dragged upstairs with the forlorn hope that it might proveuseful if they found nothing better.
The kitchen cupboard was next attacked but after an hour's work theyfound that that too availed them nothing. Warm and perspiring, theywalked through the gloomy rooms and sat down to rest in the vast,almost dark parlor. Skippy looked around at the chairs and sighed.
"We've gotta find sump'n, Nickie!" he said. "It ain't gonna be no jokesittin' here an' knowin' we _could_ get out if we had sump'n to workwith!"
"Don't I know it, kid!" Nickie said, running his fingers through hisstraight, black hair. "It's like night all the time in here an' theempty rooms an' creakin' floors'd drive anybody nuts." Suddenly hestraightened up, tense with a new idea. "Lissen, kid! How bout theirroom, hah? They'd be wise that we'd go huntin' sump'n, so what theydon't want us findin' they lock in their room, hah? That's it--_theirroom_!"
"Yeah, but it's locked," Skippy reminded him.
"Sure, it's locked," Nickie admitted smilingly. "But that's where Icome in--see? Whadda you s'pose the dicks grabbed me for, hah? Listen,there ain't no lock I can't pick if I stick at it long enough. I'd pickthem doors downstairs if they wasn't metal an' outside locks."
Skippy could not conceal his smile.
Nickie grinned too. "Aw, don't worry, kid. It'll be the last lock Iever pick." Suddenly he was serious and looked straight at Skippy."Say, kid, I can't believe you ever beat the law even onct."
"Nope."
"Holy Smoke! Framed, hah?"
"Sorta."
"If I could lay my mitts on the guy what...."
"Aw, forget it, Nickie," Skippy said, rising. "When we get away we'lltalk about it, huh? Gee whiz, I'm here an' so we gotta be thinkin' boutgettin' out quick's we can."
They went hopefully upstairs. Armed with a small kitchen knife Nickiestarted operations at the keyhole of the room which Frost and Devlinoccupied but it was late that afternoon when it yielded.
They burst into this private and mysterious sanctum with cries of joy,then stopped a little beyond the threshold and surveyed the room with afeeling of disappointment. It was furnished little better than theirroom and aside from an old iron bed, there was a single chair, a trunk,and a cracked mirror which hung over the dilapidated writing table.
There were two windows, barred and shuttered like the rest of thehouse. Skippy noticed that, then walked to the far end of the room andopened a closet door.
"A ladder, Nickie!" he exclaimed, joyfully. "I betcha it's a ladder forthe attic!"
"Yeah, an' what we gonna do up in the attic, hah, kid?" Nickie asked."Even if there wasn't no bars to them winders up there, what'd we do,hah?"
"Did I say I knew what we'd do? Ain't it sump'n that we found sump'n?Gee whiz, it's sump'n that the ladder gets us _somewheres_, even ifit's the attic where we can't do anything."
Nickie's keen, smiling eyes had already found something of interest onthe writing table. "A note to the big cheese, kid. From Frost. It'sshort and sweet. C'mon, take a look."
Skippy picked up the paper and read: "I got a great scheme early thismorning, boss, so I'm taking the Greeks to Pittsburgh--get me? Ithought no use hanging round here till you got back ... I could havethings moving, maybe even over by that time. I won't hog the price onaccount of what you said but I thought I can kill two birds with onestone. I can have two Greek sons as well as one, can't I? Now, I'mgoing so I'll see you when I get back...." It was unsigned.
Nickie looked disappointed. "Still we don't know what their racket is,hah? There's a price an' I wonder what for? S'help me, kid, I'mstumped."
"Me too," Skippy admitted, opening the table drawer curiously andpeering inside. He drew out a small memorandum book and opened it.Suddenly he whistled. "If you wanna know what the price's for, this'lltell us, Nickie. Gee whiz, here's prices _an' how_! He's got a pricefor us."
"You're crazy!" Nickie said. "A price for us?"
He soon saw with his own eyes that Devlin had listed boys, prices,dates and places over a period of several months. Also, it was quiteevident that there had been little variation in the means by which theycame into the man's dubious protection. Against Timmy Brogan's name waslisted a price of $2,500. At the top of a page, underlined in red, wasthe name of Tucker, who seemed to have been a $3,000 loss to Devlin.
Turning the next page, which bore a date two days old, the boys lookedat their own names. Nickie was rated at $3,000 and Skippy at $2,500.Shorty and Biff were question-marked at $1,000, and in parentheses theprobable price of $500 each was printed.
"At three grand I'm the most expensive guy in the bunch," Nickielaughed nervously. "How you make it out?"
Skippy shrugged. "You're askin' me! What's all these prices for usanyway, huh? Why do they all go from $500 to $3,000--what could it befor? Gee whiz, Nickie, we ain't gettin' anywheres with this."
"Don't I know it, kid? We should worry about what we don't know. Let'slook through the trunk an' the closet an' if that ain't no help, we'llgo up in the attic an' chase rats."
Skippy laughed. "An' how!" he said. "If we can't get out we can givethe rats a break anyway, huh? Devlin might put a price on 'em if hecomes back an' finds 'em here."
Without any definite motive, Skippy walked over to the back window andlooked out through a good-sized chink in the shutters where two of theslats had fallen out. A rain barrel stood just beneath the window, andon the surface of the water a green slime had gathered, an excellentplayground for mosquitoes.
He watched it for a moment, then with a sudden idea, he let thenotebook slip from his hands and saw it slide down the side of thebuilding and out of sight behind the rain-barrel.
"Say, you gone nuts?" Nickie exclaimed.
"I don't know," Skippy answered honestly. "I'm playin' a hunch--don'task me why! It was like--aw, you know what I mean, Nickie--like Fate!"
It _was_ Fate--Skippy was to realize that before another twenty-fourhours had passed.