Frost got up. "I'll get my keys," he said, "and we'll beat it pronto. I'll take you to the highway and make out I won't be glad to beat it." Nickie looked at Skippy while they were waiting. "It ain't true you sent that notebook, is it?" he asked incredulously. Skippy grinned. "Gee, _you're_ not fool-proof, Nickie. How could I get that book without Devlin seein' me that night, huh? Didn't I have a big enough job on my hands gettin' that note into the old lady's pocketbook? I hadda spread it on thick to frighten him right off an' make him think the cops had that book--well, it ain't a lie exactly 'cause they'll have it some day an', boy, is that enough to send Devlin where he can't be sent any more, huh?" "An' how!" Nickie agreed. "Then it's still out there behind the barrel, hah?" "Sure, an' it's gonna stay there till the cops come an' get it. I'll tell 'em where it is--nobody else would think to look for it there. We can't let Frost see us takin' it now an' even if we could, I don't like it on us in case anythin' goes wrong." "Aw, what could go wrong now, hah?" Nickie said confidently. "Frost takes us out to the road where we're safe, so we should worry." Skippy felt somewhat less confident. He could not, try as he would, put away from him the feeling that nothing was sure in the dark, forgotten swampland of Devil's Bog. When they were once clear of it entirely, he told himself, he would be able to laugh at the fears which he felt now. CHAPTER XXIX A SLIP Frost drove away from the clearing with a confidence that communicated itself to Nickie. He was talkative, affable and even informative. Devlin, he told them, had searched out the abandoned house after his talk with the old hermit when they had had a breakdown with their car some ten miles from the bog. Their hunt hadn't been an easy one--they made the journey three times before they found the place. "But the boss is that persistent," the man was saying. "He don't give up. That's why I ast you kids to tell the dicks as soon's you get out, 'cause if he don't find you by tonight, he'll be hoppin' off after me." "Did he tell you anything about poor Timmy, huh?" Skippy asked. "Did he tell you that he come back that night?" "He didn't tell me nothin' about him excep' that he had trouble," Frost answered truthfully. "But I know what you kids think about it--I think the same thing. He said he could never go to Albany and collect on Timmy so you know what that means without me tellin'." Skippy couldn't talk about it--it was all too horrifying. Nickie must have felt the same way for he was silent and his dark eyes kept to the narrow woods trail as if he dared not look on either side. Somewhere in that bog was Timmy, free from Devlin at last.