The Black Star: A Detective Story

by Johnston McCulley

  CHAPTER IV--ROGUE FOR A DAY

  Muggs was a product of the slums, and had known the inside of aprison. Five years before, Roger Verbeck had picked him up in Paris,at a time when Muggs was contemplating throwing himself into theSeine, for misery and crime and poor living had broken his spirit andmade existence a nightmare. Verbeck had taught him that wits can beused for honest purposes, had given him a home, and in return Muggs,in his gratitude, gave Verbeck what services he could. He was of thetype willing to die to save a benefactor pain.

  Muggs had not struck the Black Star a light blow, and when the mastercrook fell, Muggs knew he would remain unconscious for some time tocome. He was sobbing and calling to Verbeck in a low voice as he puthis foot beneath the table and felt for the button. He could not findit at first, for in his eagerness he was not methodical. Then hequieted down, and, getting down on hands and knees, went over thefloor, inch by inch, until he felt a little knob through the rug.

  His hand went out; he pressed the knob. At the end of the tableappeared a yawning chasm, as a section of the flooring fell back.Muggs was at its side in an instant.

  "Boss! Boss!" he called.

  "I'm all right, Muggs! Not even scratched, and not stunned. Hurry upand get me out of here. And watch that chap----"

  Muggs was on his feet, looking wildly about the room. There was noladder, no rope, nothing that could reach to the bottom of thattwelve-foot pit. But there was a couch in the corner, and Muggs toreoff the cover and carried it to the pit's edge.

  "Grab it, while I brace myself, boss," he directed. "Then climb--I canhold you."

  And so Verbeck emerged from the pit, bracing his feet against the wallof it and climbing hand over hand up the couch cover, while Muggs,above, braced his feet and bent back, gripping the other end of thecloth. Then the trapdoor was closed again.

  "Have you killed him?" Verbeck cried when he saw the form of the BlackStar on the floor.

  "I felt like it, but I thought you'd want him again, boss. I just gavehim a smash behind the ear."

  "Um!"

  "Don't you think we'd better call the police now, boss? I got ahunch----"

  "You heard what he said, didn't you, Muggs? If the police take him in,the others will discover it, and escape. And he said some other thingsthat have me guessing. How did he know what I said last night at aprivate reception in a private residence, eh? I know none of hiscrooks was close enough to overhear me. And how does he know what's inmy safe? He says he even knows the combination of it, and I don'tdoubt him."

  "Then what are we going to do, boss?"

  Verbeck had slipped off his robe, and now handed it, together with themask, to Muggs.

  "Put these outside in the box, then hurry back," he directed.

  As Muggs rushed away, Verbeck bent forward and took off the BlackStar's mask. There was revealed the not unhandsome face of a man aboutforty-five. Verbeck contemplated this countenance as he started toremove the Black Star's robe. It was one he never had seen before.Despite the Black Star's words, Verbeck had been half of a mind thatthe master crook was some one known to the city in general as arespectable man, a sort of Jekyll and Hyde.

  Muggs returned, and the Black Star was gagged and bound with a curtainthat Muggs tore from one of the doorways and ripped into strips.

  "And now----" Verbeck began.

  He did not complete the sentence. On the wall above his head a belltinkled. Verbeck and Muggs looked at each other, the same idea in themind of each.

  "Another crook," Muggs whispered.

  "No doubt."

  "What'll we do?"

  Verbeck hesitated a moment. "This is a great chance, Muggs," he saidfinally. "I'll play the Black Star's part. I'll be a crook protempore."

  "What kind of a crook is that?"

  "The kind I'm going to be, Muggs. Hurry! Get this chap in the otherroom and shut the door--and watch."

  As Muggs obeyed, Verbeck put on the Black Star's robe and mask. Thelittle bell jangled again. On the wall below it was a button, and thisbutton Verbeck pushed. He could hear the click as the door wasunlocked, and he slipped through the door by which the Black Star hadmade his entrance, and found himself in another dusty, unfurnishedroom.

  In a moment he heard some one enter the other door. He waited for atime, as the Black Star had done, then opened the door and walkedboldly into the room, nodding his head to the other man in robe andmask and taking his position at the Black Star's blackboard.

  "Number Eight," the other wrote.

  "Countersign?"

  "Harvard."

  Verbeck did not know, of course, whether it was the propercountersign, but he had to take the chance.

  "Report," he wrote.

  "Have information you desire."

  The man stepped away from the blackboard, put one hand beneath hisrobe, and took out a letter, which he threw on the table. Then he wentback to the blackboard and stood at attention.

  Verbeck went to the table and picked up the letter. He ripped it open,watching the other meanwhile, then lowered his eyes to read. What waswritten there was startling and very much to the point:

  Mrs. Greistman will wear diamonds and rope of pearls at Charity Ball. They will be taken from safe-deposit box during the afternoon. After the ball they will be kept in safe in Greistman library. Safe is old one. Library is on first floor; one door opens into hall; three windows, one opening on veranda and others on side of house and shaded from street lights by vines and trees. All servants sleep on second floor, in the rear. Mr. and Mrs. Greistman and daughter sleep on same floor, in front, latter on left side of hall, parents on right side as you face rear of house. Daughter subject to insomnia, especially after brilliant society events, and often takes sleeping draft.

  There it was, full information that indicated the Black Starcontemplated getting the Greistman jewels, reported by means of theorganization, no doubt. The note had been written on a typewriter, andthere were no marks on the envelope. Any active crook might have beenable to discover where the members of the Greistman family slept, andlearn where the safe was kept, and how the doors and windows of thelibrary were located, but only some one in close touch with the familycould know when they anticipated taking the jewels from thesafe-deposit box and where they would be kept the night after theball.

  Verbeck found himself wondering how this information had been obtainedand whether the man who now stood before him in robe and mask hadobtained it or was merely a messenger to carry it to the Black Star.He stepped back to the blackboard and picked up the chalk again.

  "Where did you get information?" he wrote.

  "As you instructed," came the written answer.

  Verbeck could ask no more without betraying himself. He had no idearegarding the identity of the man before him. It was possible, ofcourse, for him to call Muggs from the other room and overpower thecrook, but it was doubtful if the man would talk and reveal anythingafter he discovered he was not dealing with the Black Star, but withan outsider. And what Verbeck wanted was accurate knowledge; he wouldhave to be careful not to arouse the man's suspicion.

  "Good!" he wrote on the blackboard. Then he nodded to the man, as ifin dismissal. But the other did not seem ready to go, and acted as ifthere was something wanting.

  "Any orders?" he wrote finally.

  Verbeck remembered the pile of letters on the end of the table, andnow he went over and inspected them. They were orders for members ofthe band, evidently, for on each envelope a number was stamped. Hefound the one marked "Eight," and took out the sheet of paper itcontained. There were the orders the Black Star had prepared for thisman:

  At three o'clock in the afternoon there is a committee meeting of the Browning Club in a parlor of the second floor of the National Hotel, at which Miss Freda Brakeland will be present. Manage to be in the lobby of the hotel after the meeting, and meet Miss Brakeland as if by accident. Talk of the Charity Ball, and ascertain whether she is to wear the famous Brakeland jewels at that affair. Report in usu
al manner here at ten o'clock at night; and remember that no excuse can be accepted for failure.

  Here was another glimpse of the Black Star's work. Verbeck, after amoment's thought, decided to give the man his orders and let him go.He would continue to play at being the Black Star and discover all hecould of the master crook's plans. Perhaps he would be able to preventthe wholesale theft of valuable jewels; for it appeared that the BlackStar intended a series of crimes following the Charity Ball. This manbefore him had orders to report the following night, so there was noobject in exciting his suspicions now.

  Verbeck would have given a great deal at that moment to have been ableto peer behind the other man's mask. Who was this man before him whocould be expected to engage Miss Freda Brakeland in conversationwithout arousing suspicion? Somebody who belonged in the city, surely,somebody well known in society, for Freda Brakeland was one of themost exclusive and unapproachable women of the younger set.

  Verbeck was annoyed by the Black Star's threat that the chickens mightcome home to roost. He was astounded at the lines of informationgathered for the benefit of the master crook, and a multitude ofquestions rushed to his mind, none of which he could answer. Hedecided to refrain from calling in the police at present, at leastuntil he discovered more.

  And now to Verbeck came another plan he decided to use. He placed theorders on the end of the table and motioned for the other man to pickthem up; then he hurried to his blackboard and wrote supplementaryorders there:

  Pass the northwest corner of First Avenue and American Boulevard at exactly two o'clock in afternoon on your way to the hotel. Stop on corner, remove hat, and pretend to brush dust from it. If there is to be any change in your orders, an envelope will be slipped to you at that time; otherwise, go ahead as you have been directed.

  It seemed to Verbeck that the other man expressed surprise in the wayhis shoulders straightened and his head lifted, and for an instantVerbeck feared he had attempted too much. But the other only noddedthat he understood, then saluted and backed out of the door. Twominutes later Muggs came in from the other room and reported that thecrook had put robe and mask in the box outside, and had hurried away.

  "I'll get him!" Verbeck said. "He'll stop on that corner and give thesign, and then I'll follow him. I'll learn who it is that's helpingthe Black Star gather valuable information. We've got to stick to thegame now, Muggs, old man!"

  "I'd call the police----"

  "Not yet! I'm going to play this game myself until it gets too hot forme. The Black Star challenged me, didn't he? I'll have plenty ofevidence before I call in the police."

  "What about the chief crook in the other room? He's conscious again."

  Verbeck paced the floor for a time, his head bowed, thinking.

  "I have it!" he exclaimed at last. "You get out of here, Muggs, andhurry to the garage and get my car. Stop at the rooms and get thatbunch of keys in the right-hand drawer of my desk----"

  "The keys to the old place?"

  "Yes. We'll take the Black Star there, Muggs. Bring the car to thecorner nearest this house, then hurry in and help with him. We've gotto have it done before dawn. Hurry! That's what we'll do, Muggs! We'lltake the Black Star to the old house, and there you'll guard him,while I play master crook in his mask and robe."