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!"
He paused at the window and gasped. The clearing was full of men--he
couldn't seem to count them. Men in uniform, men without uniform, and
in the group he saw one that he recognized instantly because of a
certain jauntiness of bearing and a cigar that was being chewed with a
peculiar fierceness from one side to the other in the man's generous
mouth.
"_Mr. Conne--Mr. Conne!_" Skippy cried, wild with delight. "It's
_me_--up here. Me and Nickie--Nickie Fallon!"
Carlton Conne pushed his derby hat almost off his head and as he looked
up his cigar went to the side of his mouth and remained there at a
right angle.
"Kid!" he shouted. "You there, eh? You all right?"
"Yeah!" Skippy was gasping. "But we can't...." He took hold of the bars
one at a time and shook them ferociously, with Nickie's help, of
course, to prove what he was saying, "We can't get out through these
... these...."
Nickie shrieked! Something had happened. "The bars, kid! Look, _they're
loose_!"
Skippy looked in amazement. Miracles didn't happen of course. He
remembered that they had had to leave their task quite hurriedly the
last time they had been up there--it might have happened that they had
worked the bars loose enough to wrench away, but in their haste had not
discovered it.
Nickie was straining himself to the very utmost until he had worked
them away sufficiently for them to get their bodies through the window.
Skippy was feverishly engaged in swinging his lariat over to the
evergreen tree to the accompaniment of joyous shouts.
And then they were free of the house, sliding hand over hand along the
taut rope until they reached the sturdy tree. Fallon got safely to the
ground first, and as Skippy followed he noticed great curls of thick
smoke pouring out from the shutters on the lower floor.
Somebody shouted, "We'll get in at him the same way the kids came out,
hey, Conne--through the attic?"
"Don't bother!" Mr. Conne was saying in his brusque manner. "We'll take
no chances on losing any lives. Let Dean Devlin roast. He deserves it
now--and hereafter too."
Skippy was delighted that he was having his hand shaken by the greatest
detective in his country. It was the longest handshake he had ever
experienced. And, what was more wonderful still, Carlton Conne's arm
was about his shoulder.
"We only got your note last night, kid," he was saying. "Your sweet old
lady didn't get out her pocketbook until yesterday afternoon when she
wanted to go out for a walk, after being laid up with a cold. She took
the train and came straight to New York."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Conne--I'm sorry...."
"What are you sorry for? You've been a clever youngster through this
whole thing--that note was a masterpiece."
"I wrote it like that in case Devlin should find it on me, then he
wouldn't know I was sort of workin' for you," Skippy said
apologetically.
"Couldn't have done better myself!" Mr. Conne said crisply.
"We doped out the distance from the way you figured the time and your
idea of telling how the house came to be left here and about the
hermit. We knew you were somewhere in this section because Dick Hallam
reported he spotted you in Hillbriar. I learned only yesterday from an
insurance company complaint that an apparent systematic effort was
being made to defraud by insuring boys and doing away with them to
collect on the policies. I got Hallam on the phone, had him check in
Hillbriar and he dug up the evidence that linked Devlin unmistakably to
the racket. And a few hours later, just before I got your note, I
received the information that Devlin, who had been in an insane asylum,
when we thought he was under cover and had escaped, had developed a
mania for killing while being apparently normal in other respects."
He patted Skippy on the back and then went on: "So I prayed for a break
that we might get to you in time. I blamed myself for putting you in
such danger, but I never knew Devlin as a killer and I never suspected
the racket he was working, or I wouldn't have sent you on the job.
Well, thank God we made it in time."
"It's all right, it's all right, Boss," Skippy answered.
"Yeah, it is--now," Nickie agreed.
Mr. Conne put the boys in his car and got in beside them. "We'll wait
and see this thing go up in smoke, eh? I always thought I didn't have
anything cruel in me, but darned if I don't enjoy knowing that that
smoke is taking Dean Devlin with it. It's almost too good for him--he
should suffer for making kids suffer."
"Yeah, poor Timmy," Skippy sighed.
"Yes, I've got in touch with his aunt in Glens Falls. We traced him
when you wrote his name was Timmy Brogan. You haven't any idea where
Devlin put him?"
"No, an' we don't know where he put Frost last night," Skippy said,
telling that part of their tragic story. "I feel sorry about him too,
Mr. Conne, but it's Timmy we'll never forget. He mighta got away if he
hadn't come back from the creek to warn us about Devlin. He was like a
hero, Timmy was."
Mr. Conne thought so too, but was too much absorbed to say very much.
"I'm glad Fallon escaped with you, kid," he said, smiling at Nickie.
"Your aunt's been worrying the police department day and night to find
out where you were."
"Yeah?" Nickie said abashed. "Holy smoke, I'll be glad seein' her
again."
Skippy grinned. "Nickie an' me--gee whiz, we'd gone crazy if we hadn't
been able to talk to each other. That house...."
"Never mind, kid," Mr. Conne said soothingly. "It's all over now, and I
guess you're good and sick of this business, eh? It's a rotten game and
your Aunt Min says she'll never let you out of her sight...."
"Say, listen, Mr. Conne," Skippy interposed excitedly, "I can talk Aunt
Min into lettin' me do anything--I ain't worryin' about her. It's
you--will you gimme that job you promised me? If you say I did good...."
Mr. Conne tilted his cigar up in the corner of his mouth and looked at
Skippy quizzically. "Now I might consider that job, kid," he said, half
smiling, "if you'll promise to keep that smudge off your face when you
come into my office. I notice it's dirty--and so early in the morning!"
"Aw, that's mud from yesterday--we put it on for the mosquitoes!
Anyway, will you do one thing more, huh, Mr. Conne?"
"What?"
"Nickie's promised to be awful good so will you go his probation 'cause
any judge would do that for a feller if _you_ went his probation--gee
whiz!"
"I think the answer to that will be _yes_, kid. But suppose we get away
from here now, eh? It's getting a little too hot even for me. I haven't
had my breakfast and I suppose you kids haven't either. We'll stop at a
nice lunch-wagon I noticed down on the highway and we'll have fried
eggs and...."
"Gee whiz, Mr. Conne!" Skippy interrupted. "If you're gonna say we'll
have bacon, please don't say it!"
"No? Why not?" Carlton Conne had started the car and was waiting,
expectantly. "I thought all kids loved bacon."
"Sure, we did," Skippy answered. "Nickie an' me loved it like you say,
but not now. Let's go an' eat, huh?"
"Yeah," Nickie said eagerly, "let's scram. Sometime we'll tell about
that bacon, Mr. Conne." Skippy nodded, took a long, last look at the
burning house and turned to Mr. Conne. "It's a sad story."
"What is?" the detective asked.
"The bacon," Skippy answered simply.
THE END
------------------------------------------------------------------------
HAL KEEN MYSTERY STORIES
By HUGH LLOYD
Boys! Meet Hal Keen, that lanky, nonchalant, red-headed youth whose
guiding star is the star that points to adventure, excitement and
mystery. Follow him in his hunts for clues and criminals. There are
plenty of thrills and shivers in these stories to keep you on your toes.
THE SMUGGLER'S SECRET
Hal Keen sets out to get to the bottom of a mystery that threatens
the safety of a whole community.
THE MYSTERIOUS ARAB
Mystery, excitement, murder in a scientist's camp in the jungles of
Africa, where hate, revenge, and suspicion lead to tragedy.
THE HERMIT OF GORDON'S CREEK
The disappearance of two airmail pilots leads to a mystery that
centers about an abandoned mine and a strange old man.
KIDNAPPED IN THE JUNGLE
A hint of buried treasure in the ruins of an old French mission leads
Hal deep into the Central American jungle.
THE COPPERHEAD TRAIL MYSTERY
Baffling and blood-curdling events center about the ranch where Hal
Keen and his friends had gone in search of gold.
THE LONESOME SWAMP MYSTERY
The lonely and mysterious swamp gave up its secret only after a
series of terrifying events taxed Hal's courage and ability.
THE CLUE AT SKELETON ROCKS
In this new thriller Hal Keen finds mystery and adventure in and
about a lonely lighthouse on Skeleton Rocks, off the Maine coast.
THE DOOM OF STARK HOUSE
Mystery and terror in an old house in the wilderness above Quebec
where Hal Keen is the guest of a strange family.
GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE JUDY BOLTON MYSTERY STORIES
By MARGARET SUTTON
Here is a new series of mystery stories for girls by an author who
knows the kind of stories every girl wants to read--mystery of the
"shivery" sort, adventure that makes the nerves tingle, clever
"detecting" and a new lovable heroine, Judy Bolton, whom all girls will
take to their hearts at once.
THE VANISHING SHADOW
Judy's safety is threatened by a gang of crooks who think she knows
too much about their latest "deal." She is constantly pursued by a
mysterious shadow which vanishes before she can get a glimpse of its
owner.
THE HAUNTED ATTIC
The Boltons move into a large rambling house reputed to be haunted.
Even the brave Judy who has looked forward to "spooky" goings on is
thoroughly frightened at the strange scrapings and rappings and the
eery "crying ghost."
THE INVISIBLE CHIMES
Through an automobile accident a strange girl is taken into the
Bolton household--the whole family becomes attached to her and
interested in her story. Judy tracks down many clues before she
finally uncovers the real identity of "Honey."
SEVEN STRANGE CLUES
Judy gets to the bottom of a mystery that centers around a prize
poster contest and a fire in the school building--through seven
baffling clues that hold the key to the answer.
GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE NANCY DREW MYSTERY STORIES
By CAROLYN KEENE
Illustrated. Every Volume Complete in Itself.
Here is a thrilling series of mystery stories for girls. Nancy Drew,
ingenious, alert, is the daughter of a famous criminal lawyer and she
herself is deeply interested in his mystery cases. Her interest
involves her often in some very dangerous and exciting situations.
THE SECRET OF THE OLD CLOCK
Nancy, unaided, seeks to locate a missing will and finds herself in
the midst of adventure.
THE HIDDEN STAIRCASE
Mysterious happenings in an old stone mansion lead to an
investigation by Nancy.
THE BUNGALOW MYSTERY
Nancy has some perilous experiences around a deserted bungalow.
THE MYSTERY AT LILAC INN
Quick thinking and quick action were needed for Nancy to extricate
herself from a dangerous situation.
THE SECRET AT SHADOW RANCH
On a vacation in Arizona Nancy uncovers an old mystery and solves it.
THE SECRET OF RED GATE FARM
Nancy exposes the doings of a secret society on an isolated farm.
THE CLUE IN THE DIARY
A fascinating and exciting story of a search for a clue to a
surprising mystery
NANCY'S MYSTERIOUS LETTER
Nancy receives a letter informing her that she is heir to a fortune.
This story tells of her search for another Nancy Drew.
GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE REX LEE FLYING STORIES
By THOMSON BURTIS
Illustrated. Every Volume Complete in Itself.
The author of this series of exciting flying stories is an experienced
aviator. He says, "During my five years in the army I performed nearly
every sort of flying duty--instructor, test pilot, bombing,
photographing pilot, etc., in every variety of ship, from tiny scout
planes to the gigantic three-motored Italian Caproni."
Not only has this author had many experiences as a flyer; a list of his
activities while knocking around the country includes postal clerk,
hobo, actor, writer, mutton chop salesman, preacher, roughneck in the
oil fields, newspaper man, flyer, scenario writer in Hollywood and
synthetic clown with the Sells Floto Circus. Having lived an active,
daring life, and possessing a gift for good story telling, he is well
qualified to write these adventures of a red-blooded dare-devil young
American who became one of the country's greatest flyers.
REX LEE; GYPSY FLYER
REX LEE; ON THE BORDER PATROL
REX LEE; RANGER OF THE SKY
REX LEE; SKY TRAILER
REX LEE; ACE OF THE AIR MAIL
REX LEE; NIGHT FLYER
REX LEE'S MYSTERIOUS FLIGHT
REX LEE; ROUGH RIDER OF THE AIR
REX LEE; AERIAL ACROBAT
REX LEE; TRAILING AIR BANDITS
REX LEE; FLYING DETECTIVE
GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE HARDY BOYS SERIES
By FRANKLIN W. DIXON
The Hardy Boys are sons of a celebrated American detective, and during
vacations and their off time from school they help their father by
hunting down clues themselves.
THE TOWER TREASURE--A dying criminal confessed that his loot had been
secreted "in the tower." It remained for the Hardy Boys to clear up
the mystery.
THE HOUSE ON THE CLIFF--Mr. Hardy started to investigate--and
disappeared! An odd tale, with plenty of excitement.
THE SECRET OF THE OLD MILL--Counterfeit money was in circulation, and
the limit was reached when Mrs. Hardy took some from a stranger. A
tale full of thrills.
THE MISSING CHUMS--Two of the Hardy Boys' chums disappear and are
almost rescued by their friends when all are captured. A thrilling
story of adventure.
HUNTING FOR HIDDEN GOLD--In tracing some stolen gold the trail leads
the boys to an abandoned mine, and there things start to happen.
THE SHORE ROAD MYSTERY--Automobiles were disappearing most mysteriously
from the Shore Road. It remained for the Hardy Boys to solve the
mystery.
THE SECRET OF THE CAVES--When the boys reached the caves they came
unexpectedly upon a queer old hermit.
THE MYSTERY OF CABIN ISLAND--A story of queer adventures on a rockbound
island.
THE GREAT AIRPORT MYSTERY--The Hardy Boys solve the mystery of the
disappearance of some valuable mail.
WHAT HAPPENED AT MIDNIGHT--The boys follow a trail that ends in a
strange and exciting situation.
WHILE THE CLOCK TICKED--The Hardy Boys aid in vindicating a man who has
been wrongly accused of a crime.
FOOTPRINTS UNDER THE WINDOW--The Smuggling of Chinese into this country
is the basis of this story in which the boys find thrills and
excitement aplenty.
GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK
------------------------------------------------------------------------
WESTERN STORIES FOR BOYS
By JAMES CODY FERRIS
Each Volume Complete in Itself.
Thrilling tales of the great west, told primarily for boys but which
will be read by all who love mystery, rapid action, and adventures in
the great open spaces.
The Manly boys, Roy and Teddy, are the sons of an old ranchman, the
owner of many thousands of heads of cattle. The lads know how to ride,
how to shoot, and how to take care of themselves under any and all
circumstances.
The cowboys of the X Bar X Ranch are real cowboys, on the job when
required, but full of fun and daring--a bunch any reader will be
delighted to know.
THE X BAR X BOYS ON THE RANCH
THE X BAR X BOYS IN THUNDER CANYON
THE X BAR X BOYS ON WHIRLPOOL RIVER
THE X BAR X BOYS ON BIG BISON TRAIL
THE X BAR X BOYS AT THE ROUND-UP
THE X BAR X BOYS AT NUGGET CAMP
THE X BAR X BOYS AT RUSTLER'S GAP
THE X BAR X BOYS AT GRIZZLY PASS
THE X BAR X BOYS LOST IN THE ROCKIES
THE X BAR X BOYS RIDING FOR LIFE
THE X BAR X BOYS IN SMOKY VALLEY
GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK