CHAPTER XXVI
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY
They talked it all over before they went to sleep that night andconcluded that one bright star of hope burned brightly in their favor.Everything indicated that Devlin meant to get them both off his handsat once. Nickie observed that perhaps Frost had put the idea in hishead and, if so, they had much for which to thank him.
Skippy's thoughts were full of Dick Hallam and he dared to think theremight be some hope in that direction. Might not Hallam guess thatDevlin was holding him prisoner somewhere in the locality? Might notCarlton Conne send out his men to scour the countryside until theytrailed down the forgotten house that lay in the fastnesses of Devil'sBog?
"He's gotta!" Skippy said aloud.
"Hah?" Nickie asked sleepily.
"I was tellin' myself that sump'n's gotta come our way. That guy wepassed--I know him. He'll use his head that we must be some placenearby an' he'll have a hunt started for us."
"Yeah, but we're a coupla hours' ride from where the sawbones lives."
"It's called Hillbriar--I seen it on a sign."
"Yeah, and this place--_Devil's Bog_! That's a swell monicker allright. It's the right place for Devlin all right. If the _n_ was outan' the _i_ put before the _l_ they could call him The Devil of Devil'sBog, hah? Say, the more I think the worse headache I get about thatdoctor business. He ain't in on Devlin's racket, that's a cinch. Ifonly Devlin didn't pack that rod, kid, we coulda spilled things. But hewas watchin' us close, the dirty rat."
"Yeah, an' I wasn't gonna take no chance neither. Gee whiz, Nickie,we're better off waitin' 'cause it's better bein' alive than go off thehandle an' have maybe three of us dead. Then he coulda skipped out an'nobody woulda heard a shot."
"Yeah, we didn't have no chance without gettin' blowed up. Even in thecar, that rat wasn't missin' no tricks. A coupla times I was gonna giveyou a sign, 'cause I thought between us, we could land on him, but hehad that silencer right in his mitt. He ain't got no feelin's, he makesme thinka rock with icy water tricklin' down it."
"Did you notice anythin' just before we come to the creek, Nickie? Imean when he stopped an' got out with his flash?"
Nickie lifted himself up on his elbow. "Say," he whispered, "themfootsteps? Say, I was wonderin' too. What was in there that he was sonosey about, hah?"
"Wish I knew, believe me. That path I betcha goes through the woods an'down to that bog. He said, didn't he, that the creek an' the bog bothwound round that way, huh? Anyway, it's a cinch that he was down thatpath Saturday night. We seen mud on his feet an' tonight we could seehis footsteps."
"Then it looks like he took Timmy for ..." Nickie whispered fearfully.
"I been thinkin' the same thing. Gee whiz, Nickie, it's awful, huh?He's like you say--a devil! We gotta be pretty foxy with a feller likethat. He ain't afraida nothin', I don't think."
"Yeah, an' don't think we can beat him to it. Lissen, kid, he's twiceour size an' the gun he carries ain't no water pistol. It looks like ifhe don't get us one way, he'll get us the other. Kid, the only waywe'll get a break is for your friends to round up the dicks an' comedown here and surprise Devlin. An' how can that happen when they don'tknow...."
"But maybe they will, Nickie," Skippy whispered hopefully. "I didn'tknow the name of this place when I wrote that note. Even I didn't havea chance to hardly get it outa my shoe so I wouldn't a' had achance...."
"An' that old lady," Nickie interposed ruefully. "Holy Smoke, kid, whata chance that was to slip her that note if Devlin hadn't kep' watchin'every move. Just the kinda old lady we was talkin' about too."
"What you talkin' about, Nickie, huh?"
"That note what you was gonna slip the first old lady youcould--remember? An' you'd a' had a swell break if it wasn't forDevlin. He's a hoodoo with that funeral pan o' his."
"Gee whiz, Nickie, did I get away with it as swell as that? Gosh, I wasscared skinny that maybe Devlin was wise I knocked her pocketbook outaher hand on purpose. _She_ didn't know I did it on purpose."
"On purpose--how come?"
"Sure, I thought you knew it, Nickie. Gee whiz, was that a break thatit opened up an' her stuff ran all over the walk! When I give it backthat note was inside."
"Kid, that's the pay-off! If that ain't a break."
"Well, I did an' how! By now I bet she's read that an' maybe alreadyshe's put it in an envelope an' it's on the way to New York."
Skippy would not have been able to endure the anxiety of the followingdays if he had not had faith that the note was well on its way. Hopewould soon have fled if he had known that the sweet-voiced old lady hadnot discovered the note that night, nor for many nights to come. Shehad gone home after her visit to the doctor and, being confined to herbed for the next two weeks with a bad cold, there had been no occasionto use her "best" pocketbook.
Devlin seemed destined to win.