"Keep your shirt on. From what Devlin's looked an' from what he ain't said about Frost, makes me think there'll be plenty trouble between _them_ so the lock won't look big. Anyway, we can deny it, can't we? Frost's double-crossed Devlin a little, I think, so will Devlin believe all he says again, huh? Our word's as good as Frost's." "Kid, I'm a dumb-bell again, ain't I? While you're makin' the old bean work I'm worryin' bout Devlin's mitts." Suddenly he lowered his voice still more and whispered close to Skippy's ear, "What's the idea sayin' we didn' hear nothin' that Timmy said?" "We gotta outsmart _him_! While he thinks we ain't on to nothin', he won't be so foxy. Take it from me, Nickie, if we tell him nothin' we got a chance--not unless." "What a guy!" "If he thought we thought there was really sump'n phoney bout him an' Timmy tonight, we couldn't breathe no more without him knowin' it. He's gonna be foxy anyhow, but he'd be worse if he knew what we was thinkin' an' I betcha I'm right." "You didn't fall for that about him seein' Timmy off on that train for Montana, hah?" "We seen Timmy down in the clearin'--we seen him with our own eyes, didn' we?" "Devlin looked like a minister when he said he seen Timmy wavin' on that, train. Could a guy be lyin' an' look like that?" "That's why they call him Dean," Skippy murmured, thinking of what Carlton Conne had told him of the man's record. "He fools people 'cause he looks like a saint. Sure, he can lie--he don't do nothin' else but." "It's awful, kid, but I can't think what we saw was real--_it couldn't be_!" "But the mud on his shoes an' his wet hair...." Skippy argued. And when day dawned warm and clear, they had come no nearer to the truth than that. CHAPTER XXIV WAITING Devlin had a change of mind during the intervening hours, and at breakfast he announced with his usual gravity that they would not make the trip that day after all. He had some important business to attend to first, he said, and would leave them alone that afternoon. On Monday evening they would go. He seemed not at all concerned about the attic but just before he was leaving that afternoon, he started to remove the ladder. "Aw, leave it there, won't you?" Skippy asked imploringly. "Nickie an' me, we get sick of the dark rooms downstairs an' up there we can play cards an' all without a light. Gee whiz...." Skippy won. Devlin's cold, staring eyes glittered more than ever after he gave his consent and there was a calm about him when he went out that left the boys perplexed. They rushed to the window when they heard him slam the metal door of the woodshed. Eagerly they watched while he stalked with measured steps toward the barn. Then they saw him backing out slowly in a blue coupe that was distinctly second-hand. "Another car!" Nickie gasped.