Carlton Conne smiled. “Fortunately for him, he had been thrown clear of the car and into shallow water. Just when he had resigned himself to a watery grave, he thrust his legs out and found that his feet touched bottom. You can bet that he didn’t lose any time in scrambling up the high embankment to safety.”
“An’ did he let that Devlin know that, huh?”
Carlton Conne studied the letter before him and shook his round head. “No, he couldn’t. You see he had only seen the street and the house itself at night. After all, he had been imprisoned for a month and both the street and the house looked just like a hundred others in Chicago. Devlin had driven him to and from the house in such a hurry that he never had the chance to see where he had been living. He decided to get as far away from Chicago and the police as he could. But he was picked up in a place called Wheaton, anyway.”
“Boy, what luck!” was Skippy’s sympathetic exclamation.
“Seeing it from your point of view—yes. From my point of view, it’s fortunate that Tucker lost out, for it has warmed up a trail that’s been cold too long. Devlin has been under cover a couple of years now. O’Reilly, who is an inspector on the Chicago force, said they’re anxious to find out where the other two kids are that the Dean helped to crash out of reform schools. Well, Dick Hallam knows that I’ll be interested to know why, for I got some old scores to settle with the Dean and like a good detective he got the Dean’s scent and has trailed him to New York. This morning he learned that our reverend-looking friend has applied for a permit to visit the Delafield Reform School next Friday. That’s the reason, kid, that I want you to be there when he shows up.”
“Hot dog, Mr. Conne! I been dumb not to see what you meant before. Gee whiz, you want me there to trap him like, huh?”
“I want you to be there to help me to prepare the trap, kid. None of my men can palm themselves off as kids and it seems that Devlin has been playing up to kids only. That’s why you’re going to Delafield. You’re going to help me find out why he’s been acting so generous when I know that he isn’t the type of man to do anything like that without there being money in it somewhere. Dean Devlin never did anything for nothing. And so you’re going to put yourself in his way when he makes that visit on Friday—I’ll see to it that you have every opportunity. What’s more, you’re going to fall in with any plans he may make for you.”
“Boy, it sounds terrible excitin’, Mr. Conne!”
“Not dangerously so,” the detective assured him. “One of our men, Dorcas is his name, will either go up with you or be up there on Friday and so be on hand if you need him. You’ll have no cause to worry—you won’t be alone at any time if you do just as you’re told. But there won’t be any real danger, kid—I wouldn’t let you into this if there was. Dean Devlin is a notorious swindler and blackmailer and though he can cause plenty of excitement when he’s on the trail, I’ve never heard of him laying a hand on anybody. He’s after money, not people.”
“Gee whiz,” Skippy said stoutly, “I wouldn’t be afraid anyhow!”