A SUSPICION
Skippy's head throbbed painfully and there was a soreness all over his
slim body when he tried to move. His ears buzzed and his eyes opened
with difficulty upon a world that was dark and confusing. Voices, low
and hoarse, seemed all about him and he had the sensation of rapid
motion that added materially to his discomfort.
It came to him gradually that he was neither lying down nor standing
up, but that he was in a half-reclining position with his head resting
on someone's lap. Also, he discovered that he was again in a car and
that they seemed to be speeding along in the dark the same as before.
His head was being jounced up and down sending sharp pains through his
body, and when he felt he could no longer stand it, he stirred. A
familiar, hoarse voice spoke directly above him.
"Feelin' kinda rocky, pal?"
Skippy squinted but it was too dark to discern anything. Nevertheless,
he sensed Nickie Fallon's bright eyes looking down at him inquiringly.
"You, Fallon?" he asked weakly.
"Yeah. Your head's been banged up an' I been holdin' you on my lap."
Then, reassuringly: "But you'll be O. K., kid--don't worry."
"It's dark--terrible dark...."
"Yeah, we're travelin' without no lights. I'd keep kinda quiet if I was
you. It ain't gonna be long 'fore we'll be where you can tumble in bed
an' sleep till your head's better."
"He'll have nice eat--eh?" came a query in a slightly foreign accent.
"Us will too, eh?"
A man's deep, sonorous voice from up in front answered in the
affirmative. Nickie Fallon bent closer to Skippy's buzzing ears and
explained, "That guy's name's Barker an' the one drivin's his pal,
Frost. They're our pals from now on. Say, what a break they gave us!"
Skippy was deeply puzzled. He couldn't seem to make it out at all.
"Those Greeks," he asked wearily, "didn't I hear one of 'em just now?"
"Shorty and Biff? Sure. They're along. Dippy was scared an' wouldn't
come. But I knew you was regular so when you went out me'n Shorty
brought you 'long seein' you wasn't hurt bad. Glad, huh?"
"How 'e be glad when you ain't tell 'eem!"
Fallon laughed. "S'right, Biff. Here I'm thinkin' the kid knows all
about it." He leaned over Skippy again: "I didn't have no chance
puttin' you wise on the way up an' I go an' forget you been out cold
since we hit the ditch."
Skippy felt a chill up and down his spine at this reminder. "We hit
somethin'--so it was a ditch, huh? Gee! I got hurt then, huh?"
"Yeah," Fallon replied laconically, "but not's bad as them bulls. The
three hadda take it--the driver couldn't put up no fight. Dippy was
bruised too, but not so bad but what he could say no when we told him
he could come with us an' beat his rap. So Barker says not to bother
'cause there wasn't no time for arguin' an' another car might come
along."
"Barker--Frost--" Skippy asked puzzled, "they're your friends, huh?"
"_Friends!_ I'll say so! Cheese, ain't it a friend that gets us away so
easy as this? Lissen, kid--it shows how friendly when I'm waitin' in
the cooler this afternoon an' along comes this Frost an' he says he
gets in by sayin' he's my cousin comin' to say so-long. Then he says
how he heard the long stretch they gimme an' that he don't think they
gimme no break. So then he talks like a Dutch uncle an' says how he an'
his pal Barker can give us a break. We don't do nothin' he says. Him
an' Barker'll find out somehow what time we're gonna take the ride to
the jug. An' they do."
"Oh!" Skippy groaned as the car bumped his head painfully.
"Feelin' all right, kid?" Fallon asked sympathetically.
"Yeah," Skippy answered half-heartedly. "It's just the bumps that make
my head ache."
"We'll soon be there," called the sonorous voice which Skippy
recognized as Barker's.
He raised himself painfully from Fallon's accommodating lap and sat
upright in the seat. The Greek named Biff was sitting on his left and
on the end of the seat sat his partner Shorty. Both were smiling at him
anxiously, particularly Biff who had a rather set mirthfulness in his
round face.
Fallon obligingly crowded himself into the other corner of the back
seat in order to give Skippy plenty of room. "Anyways, you must be
feelin' a little better wantin' to sit up," he said peering over at
him. Suddenly he lowered his voice and whispered, "Say, kid, we ain't
gotta worry now 'cause Barker an' Frost's gonna see us through an' how!
Look what chances Frost took!"
"What?" Skippy inquired, aware that a feeling of foreboding had taken
possession of him.
"_Chances!_" Fallon continued hoarsely. "Didn't he find out from one of
them guards what time we was leavin' an' didn't he hang 'round the
court house till he sees the bulls' car drive up!"
"Gee!" Skippy said, feeling incapable of saying anything more.
"Sure! So like I'm sayin', Frost waits his time an' he goes an' gets
talkin' to the driver indifferent like. It's the same driver of the car
we come up in--see?"
Skippy was beginning to see only too well, but he did not say so.
"Anyways, the driver says after a while he better go in an' see if
they're set with the kids. Frost says sure, so long. He's dressed in
overalls like a mechanic--see? When the driver goes in the building,
Flint quick opens the hood an' shoots some stuff what he's got in his
pocket, in the oil. Jest enough so's to make it get workin' by the time
we hit the bumpy road--see?"
Skippy stared.
"Well, there ain't much more. Frost strolls 'round the corner an' he
quick gets in this car with Barker sittin' there like he is now. It's a
cinch! They start off ahead 'cause the driver's already told Frost what
road he takes for Delafield. They wait behind some trees down that
bumpy road an' when we blow along they give us a coupla hunnerd feet
ahead an' follow without no lights. So when the engine goes bad on the
driver an' we hit the ditch, it's more'n Frost an' Barker expect."
"Yeah," Frost spoke up in a loud, raucous voice. "We expected they'd be
stalled and standin' around lookin' for help so that when we cruised up
soft and easy with no lights on, it'd be a cinch to cover the bulls and
get Fallon and whoever of you kids that wanted to scram, into our car.
But so help me, it was easier than that!"
"Yeah," Fallon echoed, seeming to enjoy his role as narrator. "When
Frost and Barker come along, there we was ditched--the bulls knocked
silly an' the driver so goofy it was a cinch for Frost to stick him up
and knock him cold when he tries to keep us from scrammin'."
"Frost used a gun, eh?"
"Sure! But he didn't have to shoot. An' then that sap Donovan kid
wouldn't come when he had that break. He said we'd be caught an' we'd
get a worse stretch. Aw, he was just yeller! Anyways, it was lucky that
us guys didn't get it like the bulls. Only you was out, kid. Well,
we're on our way, so we should worry, hah?"
"Where we goin'?" Skippy asked as calmly as he could.
Frost and Barker were deep in some conversation of their own and seemed
to be paying no attention to their charges. Fallon leaned close to
Skippy's ear and whispered, "Between you an' me, kid, I think it's a
hideout Barker's got somewhere in the country. We been ridin' an hour
now. Barker's boss--see? I think he's done a coupla stretches hisself
'cause Frost told me on the Q. T. that Barker's got feelin' for kids
that get a break like we got an' so he helps 'em crash out whenever he
can. He's gonna keep us under cover awhile till things quiet down an'
then he's gonna get us out west to some friends. I ain't s'posed ta
tell though. Frost says Barker wants to s'prise us."
"And you say Frost--Barker's your friend too, huh?" Skippy asked
timidly. "You known 'em long, huh Fallon?"
"Nah," Nickie answered readily. "I ain't never laid eyes on Frost till
in the cooler this afternoon." And in a hushed voice, he added: "I
ain't had no good look at Barker yet, ridin' like we are without no
lights. I first hear his voice when I get in this car--he just waited
for us when he sees how things was. We should worry when we got friends
like them?"
_Friends!_ Skippy put his hand to his head, hoping for the best, but
fearing the worst.