SKIP: UNDERSTAND UNEXPECTED MOVE—SHOULD HAVE PREPARED FOR THAT ... YOU MUST SEND WORD SOMEHOW—IT’S YOUR JOB!... SIGNED “BOSS.”
He must send word—somehow! It was his job! No one but Carlton Conne could have said it just like that—no one but Carlton Conne could have written it! And Skippy thrilled at the thought, thrilled each time he read the vivid message. He would get word to him somehow, particularly since he had seen in print that it was his job to do nothing else but! There was no doubt about it now.
Carlton Conne had signed himself as Boss!
CHAPTER XVI
A NOTE
A half hour later, Skippy had decided on one phase of his job. He climbed the dusty stairway and proceeded to the door of a room which no boy had been allowed to enter.
Frost answered his knock but did not ask him in. He had jumped up from a small, battered table upon which he had been writing, and now he stood in the open doorway, his colorless eyes searching Skippy’s face in surprise.
“Can you lend me some paper an’ pencil?” the boy asked briskly.
Frost’s eyes narrowed. “What for?”
“To work out cross-word puzzles,” Skippy answered, his eyes meeting Frost’s gaze unflinchingly. “The kids are playin’ cards an’ I wanna do something.” He laughed. “I work cross-word puzzles—every night!”
“Mm!” Frost seemed to be turning the thought over and over. Finally, he walked to the table and taking a bunch of keys from his pocket, he selected one and opened a little drawer. When he came back to the door he held out a pencil and two sheets of ordinary note-paper. “Here, kid,” he said, chuckling, “cross-word puzzle all night if you feel like it.”