Skippy put his cards on the table. "I know everthin' now, I do, an' I knew plenty before I ever seen Devlin. We'll give you a break if you let us get away tonight. If you don't Devlin'll go to Pittsburgh with you an' grab that dough--a blind guy could see he figures you're givin' him the double-x--an' besides I heard him say he'd get you. Anyhow I know the cops'll grab him there an' if you're with him you'll be grabbed, too. So chaw on that a bit." Frost was plainly frightened. "He's been actin' so crazy lately he might take me for a ride at that and if I get grabbed with him I'll get the hot squat too." Skippy used the best thrust he knew. "Sure, you will. The cops got that notebook right now--anyway if they ain't, Carlton Conne's got it an' that's as good as with the cops." He waited a moment until that shot had found its mark and then he added: "I sent Carlton Conne a note an' that notebook too the night Devlin took us to the doctor's house--I told him how long it was from the time we had the accident an' all about this house an' what the hermit told you. So if you know anything about Carlton Conne you know he'll find this joint sooner or later an' if Nickie an' me are dead, it'll be tough for you if you're found with Devlin. Now I'll give you a break if you'll give us one. How 'bout it?" Like many of his ilk, Frost thought only of his own safety and as he had neither brains nor cunning, he did not stop to question nor consider anything but himself. "Sure, I'll give you kids a break--_sure_!" he was crying like the yellow creature he was. "You think I wanta burn with Devlin when I ain't done nothin' yet but help kids for him, hey? I met him in Chi and he brought me here and propositioned me. But I ain't never tried the trick on any kids and them Greeks if they didn't get drowned like they did, I couldn't gone through with it--I know it. I got more feelin's than Devlin, but I hadda stick and play up--get me? I come along in a car that night I see him first and saw him ship that Tucker kid over that cliff into the lake. I'd made a stick-up a few minutes before and I was makin' my getaway without lights." "An' you seen what he did?" Skippy asked eagerly. "Sure. He didn't hear me and he didn't see me so I switched off under some trees and it was a lonesome road that hardly anybody traveled between midnight and morning. I see an old car stop and this guy gets out. It's Devlin. Then you could have knocked me over when I sees him give the little car a shove right over the cliff. So me bein' in a little racket myself I puts on my lights and chugs up to him and he waves me to stop. So he gives me a story that him and his son was ridin' along and the car stalls. He gets out to crank it while his son gets behind the wheel to fix the spark. Well, the brake mustn't been on, he tells me, when all of a sudden he sees the car headed right over the cliff to the lake. He just has time to jump out of the way, he says."