ANOTHER DAY They had reached a point where fear had no longer the power to torture them for sleepless hours on end. Long before Devlin returned they were sleeping the sleep of exhaustion. Fortunately, they did not hear his awesome step on the stairs nor did they hear him linger outside their door and listen to their deep, regular breathing before he went to his room for the night. Day dawned and when the sun spread her roseate glow across the eastern horizon, Skippy got up and went on tiptoe to the window. He was amazed that he was looking out through those dirty green shutters on another day--he was amazed that Devlin had not thought of some awful fate for them before they had opened their eyes. He looked out over the top of the rickety barn and down across forest and bog. Crickets were chirping lustily already and the sweet chorus of rising birds filled the warm air. Then a crow cawed overhead and in its wake Skippy heard sounds that pulled at his heartstrings. A car! He listened again. It wasn't Devlin's big car for he could see the rear of it parked in the barn. What had become of the blue coupé, he did not know. Was Frost's ghost returning in that now? He shivered and jeered at himself for absorbing Nickie's superstitions. He seemed to sense a hushed activity going on in the clearing. His heart leaped inside his breast. He couldn't detect any particular sound--he felt impelled to go to the front room which Shorty and Biff had occupied and see if he could get a glimpse of anything or anyone through those shutters. While he was thinking about it, he heard Devlin's heavy tread. The man came out into the hall and dashed down the stairs. Instinctively, Skippy rushed to the bed and awakened Nickie. "I feel it, Nick!" he was whispering excitedly. "I feel it that sump'n's gonna happen an' that we better get dressed." Nickie did not have to be told a second time--he had great regard for Skippy's hunches. When they had dressed quickly, they ran out into the hall, but hesitated at the head of the stairs. Devlin was standing down in the front hall, evidently looking out through the small aperture in his metal door and mumbling excitedly. "I'll not give up--_never_!" he was saying in deep, wild tones. "Neither will they get those kids--I won't give 'em the satisfaction. I'll burn the house up and they'll burn up with me, that's what I'll do! I'll show 'em--I'll show 'em!" Skippy put his fingers to his lips and beckoned Nickie toward the rear of the hall. In a second they were scrambling up the ladder and into the attic. Then the ladder was pulled up after them and the trap door slammed shut. Nickie was at his wit's end, crying and gesticulating. "If he lights up this dump, we'll roast fine up here. What's the idea, hah--what's the idea? That guy must be cuckoo." "I'll take a chance on him burnin'," Skippy said, running toward the front window, "but he ain't gonna use that silencer on me!"