The Black Star.

by Johnston McCulley.

CHAPTER I-AN AIDED ESCAPE

Winds whistled up the river, and winds whistled down from the hills, and they met to swirl and gather fury and rattle the city's millions of windowpanes. They carried a mixture of sleet and fine snow, the first herald of the winter to come. In the business district they swung signs madly back and forth, and roared around the corners of high office buildings, and swept madly against struggling trolley cars. They poured through the man-made canons; they dashed out the broad boulevards-and so they came to the attention of Mr. Roger Verbeck, at about the hour of midnight, as he turned over in his warm bed and debated whether to rise and lower the window or take a chance with the rapidly lowering temperature.

"Beastly night!" Verbeck confided to himself, and put his head beneath the covers.

He slept-and suddenly he awakened. A moment before he had been in the midst of a pleasant dream; now every sense was alert, and his right hand, creeping softly under the cover, reached the side of the bed and grasped an automatic pistol that hung in a rack there.

From the adjoining room-his library-there came no flash of an electric torch, no footfall, no sound foreign to the apartment, nothing to indicate the presence of an intruder. Yet Verbeck sensed that an intruder was there.

He slipped quietly from the bed, shivering a bit because of the cold wind, put his feet into slippers, and drew on a dressing gown over his pajamas. Then, his pistol held ready for use in case of emergency, he started across the bedroom, taking short steps and walking on his toes.

A reflection entered the room from the arc light on the nearest street corner. This uncertain light was shut off for an instant, and Verbeck whirled quickly, silently, to find another man slipping up beside him.

It was Muggs-a little, wiry man of uncertain age, who had been in Verbeck's employ for several years, valet at times, comrade in arms at times, willing adventurer always. Muggs bent forward until his lips were close to Verbeck's ear.

"I heard it, too, boss," he said. "Somebody in the library!"

Verbeck nodded; they crept nearer the door. Inch by inch, Verbeck pulled aside one of the curtains, until they could peer into the other room. A gleam from the corner arc light penetrated the library, too.

It revealed the interior of the room in a sort of semi-gloom, causing elusive shadows that flitted here and there in such fashion that they scarcely could be distinguished from substance. Also, it revealed an open window near the fire escape-and it showed the form of a man standing before Verbeck's antique desk in a corner.

Muggs bent beneath his master's arm to see better. He felt Verbeck grip his shoulder, and looked up to find him indicating the open window. Like a shadow, Muggs, who also held a weapon in his hand, slipped through the curtains, crept along the wall, and advanced toward that window to cut off the intruder's retreat.

An instant Verbeck waited; then he stepped into the room, found the electric switch, and snapped on the lights, and leveled his automatic.

The man before the desk whirled with a snarl that showed two rows of jagged, uneven, yellow teeth. He took in the situation at a glance, saw Muggs at the window, and Verbeck at the door, and knew he had been caught in a trap. His eyes narrowed and flashed; he bent forward, giving the appearance of a rat at bay, and his hand dropped slowly toward his hip.

"Better not!" There was a certain quality in Verbeck's voice that told the burglar the man before him was neither nervous nor afraid, and would shoot if necessary. The thief's hands went above his head in token of surrender, and the belligerent light that had been in his eyes faded.

"It appears," said Verbeck, "that we have discovered you in a delicate position."

"Aw, don't try to be clever! I guess you've got me, all right!"

"Rather unceremonious, this call," Verbeck went on. "Why didn't you send up your card from the office?"

"Aw--"

"Be seated, please!"

Still holding his hands above his head, the burglar took the chair Verbeck indicated.

"Now, Muggs--" Verbeck said.

Muggs had been waiting for the word. He sprang away from the window and took the cords from the portieres. Working swiftly, he bound the burglar's hands behind his back, then fastened them to the chair. Then he a.s.sumed the role of guard, and Verbeck lowered his pistol and walked toward the desk.

"I fancy you didn't find much, my man," he said. "This is a bachelor apartment, you know, and there is little of value in the library unless you seek books or pictures."

"Aw--"

"If you had entered the dressing room now-- But, of course, if you had done that, Muggs probably would have filled you full of lead first, and made a complete investigation afterward. It is better for you that you didn't enter there. Why you should crawl into a bachelor's apartment, when there are so many pretentious residences where silver and plate are to be found, not to speak of women's jewels, is more than I can fathom. You must be an amateur at this sort of thing. Um!

What is this?"

On the desk was a sealed letter addressed to Mr. Roger Verbeck, the address having been stamped with rubber type. In one corner of the envelope had been pasted a tiny black star. On the polished surface of the desk other little black stars had been pasted. There was one also on a vase. There was another on the gla.s.s door of a bookcase.

"The Black Star!" Verbeck exclaimed.

He turned swiftly to scrutinize his prisoner, but there was no expression on the man's face to denote that he showed interest, and he was looking at the floor. Muggs was watching the bound thief closely, but his dancing eyes and parted lips showed that Verbeck's words had interested him deeply.

"So! We are honored by a visit from the Black Star, Muggs!" Verbeck said. "Think of that! The cleverest crook the town ever had to worry over-the man who got the famous Smith diamonds and cracked a safe across the street from police headquarters, who has lifted half the silver in town and stripped society women of their jewels-and he has paid us a visit. We must be getting important, Muggs-eh?"

"Yes, sir," said Muggs.

"Well, well! The man every one is looking for and cannot find, who has been sending naughty notes to the police, telling them how dull they are. I understand he even tips off what he intends doing, and then does it under their very noses. Very clever chap-for a crook! Declares all the detectives in the world can't catch him! Um! Suppose we see what is in this letter."

He grinned at the prisoner and ripped the envelope open. In it was a single sheet of paper. The letter, too, was printed, and its uneven lines showed that it had been stamped one letter at a time. It was similar in appearance to the letters the newspapers declared the police had received. Verbeck read it swiftly:

Mr. Roger Verbeck: Last night at a certain reception people were talking of the Black Star. You made the remark that the Black Star was not a crook, but a gang-that the police didn't catch him because they had so many cases on which to work that they couldn't give their undivided attention to any particular one.

You declared that any clever man who applied himself to the task could capture the Black Star and break up his gang. You boasted that you could do it yourself, and easily.

To show you how useless it would be for you to pit your brains and skill against mine, I am putting this letter on your desk while you sleep in an adjoining room, and am leaving my sign on some of your belongings. I am even putting a black star in your bed within a foot of the spot where you rest your head while you are sleeping. After this exhibition, either admit that the Black Star is clever, or do as you boasted you could do-catch me.

"Read it, Muggs," said Verbeck, guarding the prisoner himself as Muggs obeyed. "What do you think of that, eh? Intended us to wake up and find these things stuck all over the place! Trying to show us how very clever he is, this naughty Black Star, and we catch him at it.

There'll be joy at police headquarters over this. Now you just keep your eyes on this gentleman, Muggs, while I get into my clothes, and then we'll continue the entertainment."

Verbeck hurried to the dressing room, leaving Muggs on guard, and dressed as swiftly as possible. He carried a topcoat and cap to a chair near the door of the bedroom, and then he hurried over to the bed.

The Black Star had done as he had said. On the head of the bed was one of the little signs, and whoever had placed it there had put his hand within six inches of Verbeck's head. The man in the other room, Verbeck decided, had done that first, then gone into the library to finish his work.

Verbeck hurried back and relieved Muggs.

"Go and get into your clothes," he ordered, "and then hurry back here.

I'll try to entertain our guest while you are gone."

He drew up a chair and sat down, facing the prisoner, and less than six feet away. He was humming a tune, and there was a smile playing about his lips. Had the prisoner been well acquainted with Roger Verbeck that smile would have put him on guard.

Verbeck already had formed a plan. He and Muggs understood each other well, thanks to sundry adventures in which they had partic.i.p.ated in the four corners of the earth, and he knew that Muggs even now was reading the note he had scrawled hurriedly and left on the dressing table, and would act accordingly.

"The Black Star-well, well!" he exclaimed, grinning at his prisoner again. "And so you are the clever crook?"

"I'm not saying anything!"

"You decorated the head of my bed with that thing, I suppose?"

"You can suppose all you like."