"You said it, kid!" Nickie was enthusiastic. "And when we scram outa this drum, I'll say like Biff and Shorty, we'll go home'n' say hello an' then tell the dicks we're reportin' for Delafield." Skippy thought of an old saying of his aunt's about an ill wind blowing someone some good. Timmy, the Greeks, and now Nickie all seemed to lose their defiance of the law under Devlin's evil roof. If it took an evil to cure an evil then their contact with the arch criminal had not been entirely in vain. CHAPTER XVIII THE SEARCH The cellar yielded nothing in their search but mouldy rubbish, ancient cobwebs and the stone crock which Frost had indicated as their water supply. A broken shovel which Skippy salvaged from one of the rubbish piles was dragged upstairs with the forlorn hope that it might prove useful if they found nothing better. The kitchen cupboard was next attacked but after an hour's work they found that that too availed them nothing. Warm and perspiring, they walked 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 joke sittin' here an' knowin' we _could_ get out if we had sump'n to work with!" "Don't I know it, kid!" Nickie said, running his fingers through his straight, black hair. "It's like night all the time in here an' the empty rooms an' creakin' floors'd drive anybody nuts." Suddenly he straightened up, tense with a new idea. "Lissen, kid! How bout their room, hah? They'd be wise that we'd go huntin' sump'n, so what they don't want us findin' they lock in their room, hah? That's it--_their room_!" "Yeah, but it's locked," Skippy reminded him. "Sure, it's locked," Nickie admitted smilingly. "But that's where I come 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 pick them 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 I ever 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'll talk about it, huh? Gee whiz, I'm here an' so we gotta be thinkin' bout gettin' out quick's we can." They went hopefully upstairs. Armed with a small kitchen knife Nickie started operations at the keyhole of the room which Frost and Devlin occupied but it was late that afternoon when it yielded.