It was Skippy's turn to grin. "Sump'n tells me Mr. Conne would say it was all right for me to tell _you_. Listen...." And Nickie listened, fascinated. They trudged along arm in arm, digging into the mire before them with their sticks and forgetting, as Skippy talked, that they were weary and hungry and almost despairing. The afternoon was waning when they noticed that the trees were beginning to thin out ahead. The underbrush was much less dense and therefore they were able to walk faster despite the fact that the ground was even more miry than any they had yet encountered. Skippy was beginning to feel a little hope. Were they not almost out of the woods when the trees thinned out like this? He had almost convinced himself that they were, when he saw just before him several large footsteps in the slimy ground. His finger trembled as he pointed to them. "Look, Nickie!" Nickie nodded his head slowly and whispered, "Devlin's!" They were standing there trying to decide whether to run or not when they saw, still a little farther on, a dark object lying on the ground. There was something so significant about its size and shape that a mutual horror of it impelled them on, despite themselves. Frost was lying face downward in the mud. Skippy bit at his under lip to keep from shouting. Nickie had grasped his arm and was shaking like an aspen leaf. Suddenly, they heard a sound from behind a tree not ten feet distant. Devlin stepped out before they could move. He was grave, unsmiling as ever and his eyes glittered coldly. "Too bad, isn't it," he said enigmatically. Skippy could only gasp; Nickie could only shake. "It's dangerous to run off in this bog," Devlin boomed in his funereal voice. "A person can meet almost any kind of a death, as you see. You boys might be lying there instead of Frost, eh? Well, it's lucky I found you." It was too true--Devlin had found them! CHAPTER XXXI DOOMED They had neither heart nor voice to talk. Not for hours. They seemed to have lived through some terrible nightmare. From the moment when they saw Devlin's footprints the panorama had moved before them, swiftly, relentlessly. And now they were back again in the house of gloom and terror. Skippy sat in a daze as he watched Devlin talk. "You can't complain about me as a host," he was saying, "after you deliberately desert my generous hospitality what do I do, eh? I bring you safely back and now I'm inviting you to help yourself to some supper. There's plenty of bacon and beans!" "Aw, pipe down, Devlin!" Nickie shouted, stung into action. "What you gonna do with us, hah? That's all we wanta know!"