“We seen Timmy down in the clearin’—we seen him with our own eyes, didn’ we?”
“Devlin looked like a minister when he said he seen Timmy wavin’ on that, train. Could a guy be lyin’ an’ look like that?”
“That’s why they call him Dean,” Skippy murmured, thinking of what Carlton Conne had told him of the man’s record. “He fools people ’cause he looks like a saint. Sure, he can lie—he don’t do nothin’ else but.”
“It’s awful, kid, but I can’t think what we saw was real—it couldn’t be!”
“But the mud on his shoes an’ his wet hair....” Skippy argued.
And when day dawned warm and clear, they had come no nearer to the truth than that.
CHAPTER XXIV
WAITING
Devlin had a change of mind during the intervening hours, and at breakfast he announced with his usual gravity that they would not make the trip that day after all. He had some important business to attend to first, he said, and would leave them alone that afternoon. On Monday evening they would go.
He seemed not at all concerned about the attic but just before he was leaving that afternoon, he started to remove the ladder.
“Aw, leave it there, won’t you?” Skippy asked imploringly. “Nickie an’ me, we get sick of the dark rooms downstairs an’ up there we can play cards an’ all without a light. Gee whiz....”