CHAPTER XIV
MISSING MASTERPIECES
A half a dozen policemen were on guard outside the museum. They walkedaround the building continually, and communicated at the end of eachhour with one of the guards inside. Now and then they gathered near theentrance to talk and wish their vigil was over.
Ten minutes after the Black Star's man had flashed his torch from thewindow, these six officers were startled by sounds of an altercation inthe street. Two men, their voices raised, were quarreling. Otherspassing in the street stopped to listen. Threats were hurled back andforth. The men grappled, started to fight.
Two of the policemen left the museum and started running toward thecombatants. When they were halfway one of the fighting men dartedbackward, drew a revolver and began firing.
There was a crowd on the corner now. The quarrelsome one continued toshoot; the other man fell in the street.
The four other policemen forgot the museum. They ran toward the corner,clubs in their hands, to beat back the crowd, to help take charge of themurderer, to send for an ambulance, if it proved to be necessary.
The Black Star's man observed this from a window. He flashed his torchagain, and then ran down the stairs and to a little side door of themuseum, which he unlocked.
Four men darted across the street and through this door. It was lockedagain immediately.
"All of them down and out!" the man who had been inside reported. "We'llhave to work swiftly. They'll be expecting a guard to show his face atthe door at the end of the hour. Come with me--I know the paintings theboss wants."
"How about that electric current?" one asked.
"I turned it off, of course. Hurry!"
They ran up the stairs and into one of the galleries. The man who hadbeen inside indicated six paintings. Men crawled beneath the protectingrailings, drew knives and started cutting the paintings from theirframes.
"No time to waste!" the leader informed them. "We've got about fifteenminutes more."
He ran to one of the windows and glanced out at the street. The crowdwas growing larger. The police had ascertained that the man who hadfallen was not shot, but had stumbled in his mad haste to get away. Thetwo men had been arrested, and the patrol auto called. None of thepolice had started back toward the museum, though some of them glancedin that direction now and then.
Inside, the paintings had been cut from their frames and made intorolls. The rolls were tied up with rope and then lashed together.
"Out you go!" said the man who had hidden inside.
They hurried down the stairs and to the little side door. The one aheadopened it and glanced out.
"Coast all clear!" he announced.
Two went first, carrying the roll of paintings with them. The othersleft one by one, darted across the street, and each went in a differentdirection. Those with the paintings had an automobile waiting; theyjumped in and were driven rapidly away.
The men who had fought were carried away to jail; their part had beendone well. The policemen went back to the museum, joking about the fightthey had witnessed.
"They'll make it up in the morning and get fined for fighting anddischarging firearms," one of them declared. "Business quarrel, eh?Pretty vigorous business men, I think!"
"Suppose everything's all right inside?" another asked.
"That gang inside is so busy playing cards that they wouldn't know it ifa battle was staged in the street."
The end of the hour came, but no guard showed himself at the front doorto say that everything was all right. One of the policemen pounded uponit, but got no response.
"That's funny!" he said. "They ought to answer--that's their orders!"
He pounded upon the door again, and still he got no reply from thoseinside.
"Think we'd better go in?" one of the others asked.
"We've got orders not to do it unless we know there's trouble inside."
"Well, there may be trouble."
"Card game--that's all. You listen to me--hand that guard a call downwhen he shows up. He's a sort of fresh guy, anyway--thinks he owns themuseum, I guess!"
Once more he pounded on the door and got no response. The police beganto look serious.
"Aw, how could anything happen?" one of them asked. "Nobody could getinto the museum, could they? And there was nobody in there when it waslocked up except them that belonged. Ain't we been on watch?"
"Well, that scrap called all of us across the street for a time,remember."
"Yes, and we'd better forget that if there happens to be any troubleinside. I think we'd better go in and investigate. This doesn't lookexactly good to me."
He took a key from his pocket--a key to the front door of the museum,that had been given him for just such an emergency. He unlocked the doorand went in with two of the others, locking the door behind him.
They hurried through the entrance and started down the corridor towardthe wide stairs that led to the floor above. The one in advance gave acry of horror and started forward. Stretched on the marble floor werepolicemen and museum guards, unconscious, and plainly drugged in somemanner.
"Call headquarters!" one of the policemen shrieked. "Get the chief!"
Another ran to the nearest telephone, which happened to be in the officeof the custodian. Within a short time he had the chief on the wire.
"This is Officer Riley, at the museum," he said. "There's somethingwrong here. No guard showed up at the front door at the end of the hour,and so we came inside. We found all the guards and officersunconscious, laid out!"
"What's that?" the chief cried. "What laid 'em out? What's happened outthere?"
"We just got inside the building--haven't had time to investigate--don'tknow what's been going on!" Officer Riley gasped. "Thought I'd bettercall you at once."
"Keep your eyes open--we'll be right up there!" the chief cried. "Keepright on the job!"
"Better bring the police surgeon with you, chief. There seems to besomething wrong with these men."
That telephone conversation caused another tumult at policeheadquarters. The chief bellowed his orders, then ran with Verbeck andMuggs to the former's roadster, which was in readiness at the curb. WithVerbeck at the wheel, the powerful car dashed through the streets towardthe museum, and behind it came half a dozen police department autosfilled with detectives.
They reached the museum, left the cars and hurried to the entrance. Oneof the men inside unlocked and opened the door.
"They are still unconscious, chief!" he reported. "Looks to me as ifthey had been doped."
The police surgeon made a swift examination.
"They have been drugged," he announced, "and pretty badly, at that. I'llhave to get busy on them at once, or we'll have dead men on our hands."
"Bring them around as soon as you can," the chief said. "I want to hearwhat they've got to say. And you men search the entire building! We'lllook into this! One of you call up the superintendent of the museum andget him down here. Lively!"
The officers scattered throughout the big building, turned on all thelights, and began their search. They found the unconscious guards on theupper floor and carried them below for the police surgeon to work on.The surgeon sent in a call for his assistants.
Policemen who searched the statuary hall discovered the open trapdoor.They got up into the attic, and investigated there, and found nothingexcept dust and footprints in it. Down to the first floor they went toreport this.
Verbeck and Muggs hurried to the attic and investigated for themselves.
"Very simple," Verbeck said. "Some member or members of the gang got uphere during the day, remained in hiding until night, and then got downand handled the guards and officers."
"Yeah, but where are they now?" Muggs wanted to know.
"Not in the building, you may be sure. They managed to get out in somemanner."
"And what did they swipe?"
"The superintendent will have to tell that, I suppose. There are severalthousand things in this place, Muggs, that a
re almost priceless. TheBlack Star has done it again. Let's go downstairs and see if there isanything in the nature of a clew."
They hurried down the stairs. The superintendent of the museum had justarrived--a worried, frantic superintendent who immediately telephonedfor more guards and one of his assistants.
"I am almost afraid to look," he announced. "Do you suppose anything hasbeen taken?"
"That little side door is unlocked," one of the detectives reported tothe chief.
"It shouldn't be," said the superintendent. "It always is locked exceptwhen we are receiving new exhibits, which are delivered at thatentrance."
Verbeck grasped one of the officers by the arm.
"Have you watched closely all night?" he demanded.
"Yes, sir."
"Didn't leave the museum at all?"
"For a few minutes. There was a shooting scrape at the corner----"
"Did all of you go there? How long were you gone? Speak quickly, man!"
"Weren't gone more than half an hour. But we watched the museum, justthe same. It's light----"
"From the corner you couldn't see that little side door!" Verbeckthundered. "Any of the Black Star's men who had hidden in the museumcould have rendered these guards and officers unconscious, taken whatthey wished, and walked right out of that side door with it, while youwere over at the corner. That fight was staged for a certain purpose!"
"Oh, you fools!" the chief cried. "The newspapers are right--the policeforce is a gang of imbeciles! Idiots! You've let him get away with itagain!"
The superintendent of the museum had been going through the buildingwith a couple of detectives, and now they heard his cry of surprise andrage from the upper floor.
"What is it? Find something missing?" the chief cried.
"Six famous paintings!" the superintendent shrieked. "Six of them gone!Six priceless masterpieces--cut from their frames--carried away! Theprotective current--it must have been turned off! Six of the mostpriceless pictures!"
"Great Scott!" the chief ejaculated.
"Now there will be a fine row!" Verbeck said. "We've got to catch theBlack Star and get those paintings back! Every art lover will howl untilwe do! And, worst of all, they didn't belong to the museum--they weremerely loaned. And the six are worth more than a million dollars!"
Black Star's Campaign: A Detective Story Page 14
