The Black Star Part 20

"Sure."

"The stones alone are worth a quarter of a million dollars-enough to tempt any jewel thief, and especially a jewel fiend, since some of the stones have histories. Now-suppose it gets noised abroad that I am having the necklace reset for my fiancee. The newspapers, we'll say, print the history of the necklace and tell of my intentions. It is announced that the jewelry firm of So & So is to do the work, and that the necklace has been taken from the safe deposit and now is in the vault of that firm."

"I begin to get you, Roger."

"I thought you would. If you were the Black Star, and read that in the papers, what would you do? If you were the Black Star and held enmity for me, and wanted to turn a big trick to show your contempt for the police, what would you do?"

"Ha! I'd pinch that necklace, thereby getting a quarter of a million in stones, and some other truck as well-and at the same time get square with Mr. Roger Verbeck."

"Exactly, Riley! Even the Black Star would fall for that trap. If he could get those stones, he'd not only have a handsome profit, he'd make a laughingstock of me-what he has sworn to do. See?"

"And you'd be takin' a mighty big chance to do it."

"Ah! As it happens, there is a paste duplicate of the necklace. That will be sent to the firm of So & So-the real firm to be decided between us later. And there we can fix a trap, have the place watched night and day, be on the job ourselves. Either the Black Star will not have the courage to go after it-or he'll go after it, and we'll catch him. And we'll get him when he has the paste jewels in his hands, and give him the laugh, along with a term in prison."

"Great-great!" Riley exclaimed. "But can you do it?"

"I'll make the arrangements to-morrow. It'll be like throwing out bait to catch a big fish."

"A sucker!" Riley gurgled.

"If he doesn't make some sort of move to-night we'll make the arrangements to-morrow. We'll bring him out of his hole where we can get on his trail."

Mr. Muggs walked slowly into the room from the kitchen, his face inscrutable.

"Boss, you bought that bread at the delicatessen, didn't you?" he asked.

"Yes, Muggs."

"Just picked a loaf off the counter and had it wrapped up?"

"Why, yes!"

"Didn't notice anything unusual about it?"

"No. What do you mean, Muggs? Isn't the bread good?"

"And we got right into the car with it and came here and put it with the other stuff on the table in the kitchen--"

"Yes-yes! What's the trouble?"

"Did you notice the top of the loaf carefully when you picked it up?"

"Yes, confound you! What--"

"And the old Dutchman wrapped it up right under your eyes, didn't he?

And we brought it here, as I said, and I unwrapped it and put it on the table when I unwrapped the other things. I looked at it when I did that-I know I looked at the top of it, and there wasn't anything the matter with it then-and that was less than two hours ago, wasn't it?"

"Muggs, if you don't tell us--" Verbeck began.

"Oh, I'll tell you, all right, boss. On the top of that loaf now, right down the middle of the top, is a row of little black stars."

"What!" Verbeck and Riley cried in a breath.

They rushed into the kitchen. Muggs pointed at the bread dramatically.

As he had said, there was a row of the little black stars down the middle of the top of the loaf.

"This beats the deuce!" Riley exclaimed. "How did they get there?"

"I'll swear they were not there when that loaf was wrapped," Verbeck said.

"And I'll swear they wasn't there when I unwrapped it," Muggs declared. "And now they are there! So they must have been put there while we were talking in the living room!"

"Great Scott!" Riley cried. "Do you mean to say the Black Star or one of his men has been here and did that?"

"No little bird did it!" Muggs exclaimed.

"Stand back!" Riley said. "Here is where experience takes the lead.

I'll just look into this."

He investigated the kitchen first. None of the windows had been unfastened since they had come to the house, and dust on the sills showed that n.o.body had touched them. The back door had not been unlocked, for there was an abundance of fuel in the kitchen, and Muggs had not been obliged to go out for water. Riley opened the door, however, and his eyes met a drift of snow unmarred by footprints.

n.o.body had entered there.

There was but one other door, and that opened into a pa.s.s pantry, which, in turn, opened into the dining room. Riley went into the dining room, which had not been touched, since they had decided to eat in the living room, and found no traces of an intruder there. Even the dust on the floor had not been disturbed. There were no traces in the pa.s.s pantry, and it would have been impossible, of course, for any one to have entered through the living room, since they had been in it constantly since reaching the house, and would have seen any unwelcome visitor.

"Humph!" Riley said, and looked at Muggs suspiciously.

"Boss, he thinks I done it!" Muggs exclaimed.

"Nonsense!" Verbeck replied.

"I don't think you're a member of the Black Star's gang, if that's what you mean," Riley stated, "but I do think it wouldn't be a bit past you to try out a little joke."

"I didn't! Boss, I swear I didn't!"

"I believe you," Verbeck said.

"Then it's mighty puzzlin'," Riley declared. "Rows of black stars don't go stickin' themselves to bread of their own accord."

He stepped back and looked at the interior of the kitchen again. No one had entered or left by the rear door or any of the windows-that much was certain. No one could have entered from the living room through the pa.s.s pantry. Then--

The table stood beside the range. Over the range was a big hood that opened into a wide chimney. Riley went forward and peered into the hood-struck a match and held it beside his head and peered into the chimney's wide mouth. There was some dust and soot sprinkled over the back of the range, but Riley could not tell whether it had been sprinkled there recently, because the house had been uninhabited for so long that dust and soot and cobwebs were everywhere.

"Where does that chimney go?" he asked.

"It is one of those old-fas.h.i.+oned, wide chimneys that run straight up through a house, with stove-hole openings, in every room," Verbeck answered.

"We'll just take a look upstairs. You can remain here, Muggs, and keep your eyes open."