The Black Star Part 22

"Would he smash himself on the head?" Verbeck demanded, something of anger in his voice.

"Such things have been done before. A little rap would start the blood, and he might have shammed a great deal of that staggering-around business. You don't suppose this Black Star has got hold of Muggs-corrupted him or got the hooks into him?"

"I do not!" Verbeck replied emphatically. "I'd stake my life on Muggs.

He's loyal! If the Black Star tried anything like that Muggs would tell me at once."

"Then how did it happen? Answer me that! It stands to reason, doesn't it, that n.o.body has been in this house except the three of us?"

"It looks that way, but--"

"Humph! You go right ahead thinking what you like, Roger. As for me, boy, I'm going to keep one eye on Mr. Muggs."

"But--"

"Don't be angry now. It's my business to be suspicious of people. I knew you when you were a baby, and I'm right with you in this sc.r.a.p with the Black Star. You've lived with this Muggs man for some time, and you think he's loyal-sure! He's somewhat of a stranger to me, and I look at him from the outside, and don't see him with any rosy waves of glory around his head. No insult meant, Roger. I'll just keep an eye on him, and if he ain't guilty it won't hurt him a bit."

They went back to the kitchen. Muggs, now that the excitement was over, was going ahead with the preparations of the evening meal. Half an hour later he had it ready, and the three of them ate it in the living room, while Muggs groaned now and then and held his hand to the back of his head often, apparently not noticing that Riley eyed him constantly.

"If I get my hands on that Black Star I'll kill him!" Muggs promised.

"That's the second time he's smashed me on the head!"

"Maybe the Black Star didn't do it," Riley said.

"Either him or one of his crooks!"

"But we couldn't find a trace--"

"I don't care," Muggs interrupted; "if we knew absolutely that there wasn't another human bein' within ten miles-I know a man smashed me on the back of the head with a blackjack! I've had it done often enough in my life, and I know the feelin'! And as I fell he grabbed me by the shoulder and slapped that black star on my face! Don't tell me!"

The meal at an end, they discussed the trap Roger had proposed to set for the Black Star, perfecting details and deciding just how the scheme was to be worked. It was planned that Roger should go into the business district the following morning and arrange matters with a jewelry firm, communicate to the newspapers the news that he intended having the famous diamond necklace reset, and arrange with the chief to have the jewelry establishment crowded with officers day and night.

So Roger retired at eleven that night, leaving Riley and Muggs on guard. He slept in the bedroom, with his clothes arranged beside the bed on a chair so that he could don them quickly if an alarm came from headquarters that the Black Star had committed the great crime he had promised. He was to arise at five and let Riley and Muggs sleep from five until ten. Then they would take up the watch again, and Roger would go into town about his business.

At five o'clock Muggs awoke him, announcing that he had cleaned the bathroom and arranged the bath.

"Anything happen?" Verbeck asked. "I've slept like a dead man."

"Quiet night, boss. Riley went out at midnight and prowled around the grounds a while and talked with the cops. n.o.body'd been near the place, he said. I'll have some coffee ready by the time you're dressed, and when you've had it Riley can go to bed."

"And so can you, Muggs."

"Not for some time, I ain't. You can bet I ain't goin' to let you be alone in that room with both Riley and me asleep. Look what happened to me in the kitchen when I was alone!"

"I'll call in the sergeant in charge of the squad, Muggs."

"Yes, and maybe he's one of the Black Star's men for all you know!"

"Nonsense! Well, I'll let you stay up until seven-how's that?"

"That's a little better, boss."

Verbeck dressed and had his coffee, and Detective Riley retired to the bedroom. Muggs curled up on the divan. Verbeck paced the floor for a time, and then threw open the door and went out on the veranda for a breath of morning air. The squad of police had been changed, and the new sergeant in charge hurried toward Verbeck across the lawn.

"I brought you the morning papers, Mr. Verbeck," he said, "when I came on duty. Thought perhaps you'd like to have 'em."

"Thanks, sergeant."

"Your name certainly is in all of them! Say, is it true what they say?"

"And what do they say?"

"That you were planning a trap for the Black Star and he knew all about it?"

"What!" Verbeck cried.

He grasped the papers and opened the first that came to his hand.

Great headlines told of the day's progress in the Black Star case. The attack on the hotel clerk was exploited at length, the removal of Verbeck and Muggs and Riley to the old Verbeck place mentioned. The paper told how the place was surrounded at all hours by policemen, and grilled the police department because the dragnet had caught nothing but small fish.

The eight crooks arrested with the Black Star, and who really aided his escape, had been bailed out. Bail of five thousand had been fixed in each case, and two famous criminal lawyers had appeared and put up forty thousand dollars cash, refusing to say for whom they acted, merely declaring the crooks were their clients.

"So they're loose!" Roger thought. "They'll be at work again-or else they'll all jump bail and so keep from betraying the Black Star's secrets. I imagine it'd be worth forty thousand to him to have his plans safeguarded."

He read on. At two o'clock that morning, just as the paper was going to press, a messenger boy had appeared with a letter from the Black Star. The press had been stopped to get in this latest bit of news.

The messenger declared he had been called to a prominent hotel and handed the letter by a distinguished-looking gentleman whose description did not tally with that of the Back Star.

That letter read:

Within three days!

Within three days I commit the greatest theft I have perpetrated since coming to the city!

Within three days I make a huge joke of Roger Verbeck, who dares match wits with me!

I know all that goes on-I know everything! The police dragnet is most amusing. They never would dream of looking for me where I am hiding!

I know, for instance, that yesterday afternoon, and again last evening, sitting in the living room of his ancestral home, Roger Verbeck planned with Detective Riley and Muggs, Verbeck's man of all work, to set a trap for me. Very clever-had I not learned of it.

Let Roger Verbeck understand that he may advertise to his heart's content that he is having his famous diamond necklace reset at a prominent jeweler's-and hope that I'll take the bait and try to steal the jewels while a crowd of police are waiting to make a capture-but his hopes will be in vain. I am planning something bigger than the theft of the Verbeck necklace. The shock will come soon--

Within three days!

Verbeck did not go back into the house just then. He thanked the sergeant for the papers again, and turned toward one end of the veranda, to stand there and look off down the street, thinking.

It was almost uncanny what this Black Star knew. It was beyond belief that either the Black Star or one of his confederates had been in the house and overheard those conversations. Had they not searched the house from bottom to top the evening before?

How, then, had the knowledge reached the Black Star? Three men knew of that plan-himself, Riley, and Muggs. Then either Riley or Muggs, on the face of things, must have conveyed the information to the Black Star.