CHAPTER XXV-SHADOWED BY THREE

Roger Verbeck's powerful, four-seated roadster, its curtains up against the fine drizzle of rain, and with Muggs at the wheel, drew up when the traffic policeman raised a warning hand, and waited for the cross-town stream of vehicles and pedestrians to pa.s.s.

It was eight o'clock in the evening, and the streets were thronged.

Crowds were hurrying toward the theaters; more crowds were making for a big automobile show, and others were hastening toward a large hall, where there was to be a ma.s.s meeting, at which infuriated speakers would demand that the police department of the city capture instantly the Black Star, the notorious master criminal, who, with his band of clever crooks, had terrorized the city for half a year.

Verbeck's car was of foreign make and of peculiar appearance, and it was natural that it should be recognized. Muggs bent over the wheel and gritted his teeth as he heard the expressions pa.s.sed by pedestrians, and the young man beside him looked straight ahead as if seeing nothing and hearing nothing.

"When you goin' to get the Black Star?"

"What's Black Star payin' you to hold off, Verbeck?"

"That crook's too much for you, ain't he?"

"Well, well-so he hasn't caught you again?"

Those were samples of the remarks being pa.s.sed, and they made Muggs want to get from the roadster and fight his way into the midst of the mob. Muggs knew better than any one else how Verbeck, since the memorable day when the Black Star had dared the young millionaire to capture him, had tried every means in his power to get hands on the master criminal.

The Black Star had written again to Roger Verbeck, saying that he and his man Muggs would be abducted by the Black Star's men, taken to the master crook's new headquarters, for which they had been searching in vain, and from there taken to the scene of a big crime. They would be forced to stand by under guard and watch the crime committed, and then they would be treated to shots from the vapor gun the Black Star and his men used, and left unconscious on the spot-laughingstocks for the public.

That letter had been sent to the newspapers three weeks before, and as yet the Black Star had not abducted Roger Verbeck and Muggs. The criminal, in another letter to the papers, insisted that this was not because he had not had an opportunity to effect the abduction, but because preparations had not been completed for the next big crime.

So now, as Verbeck's roadster waited at the corner, those who recognized the car and its occupants enjoyed a few moments of sarcastic abuse. It was nothing to the general public that Verbeck had spent time and money in an effort to capture the master criminal after the police had failed, that he had risked his life half a score of times, and once even had been accused of belonging to the Black Star's band himself.

The unthinking public looked only at results-and there had been none.

Muggs and Verbeck and the few thinkers in the city knew well that, if the Black Star was caught, these thoughtless ones would be the first to praise Verbeck loudly; but in the meantime the sarcasm was highly unpleasant.

After a time the traffic cop turned and raised a hand, and Muggs growled again and threw in the clutch and piloted the heavy car across the street and down the broad avenue. They were out of the congested district within a few minutes, and speeding along a boulevard that led to a section of the city where large and modern apartment houses were to be found.

Half a block behind Verbeck's roadster a man trailed on a motor cycle, seemingly paying no attention to the car ahead, but in reality keeping close watch on it. A short distance behind the motor cycle trailed a runabout with one man in it. The runabout was a small car, but a mechanician could have told after a second glance that it was a powerful one. The man in the runabout was watching both the motor cycle and Verbeck's car.

A short distance behind the runabout was a lightweight truck. Behind the wheel of the truck was a young man, who appeared eager to get home after an overtime delay in making deliveries. He wore greasy overalls and jumper, and a slouch hat pulled well down over his eyes. The collar of the jumper was turned up to keep out the drizzle.

Thus the procession moved along the broad boulevard, and, after a time, Verbeck's roadster drew up at the curb in front of an imposing apartment house. Muggs remained behind the wheel, but the man he had been driving got out and hurried into the building. It was natural that he did so, for on the ground floor lived his fiancee. The threat of abduction, it appeared, did not keep Roger Verbeck from paying his customary visits to his sweetheart.

The man on the motor cycle pulled in at the curb on the opposite side of the street, dismounted, and appeared to be tinkering with his machine. The runabout pa.s.sed him, and its driver bent out and spoke a few words as it pa.s.sed, the motor cyclist nodding in reply. Then the runabout went around the next corner, where it stopped, its driver getting out and walking slowly back up the boulevard, like a belated laborer on his way home.

The light truck did not pa.s.s Verbeck's car. It turned into an alley and pulled up behind a garage there. Its driver got out and walked quickly back to the mouth of the alley, and there he peered around the corner of a high fence and down the boulevard. He noticed that the motor cyclist had left his machine and crossed the street and was approaching Verbeck's roadster. He saw the man who had been driving the runabout walking slowly from the other direction.

The driver of the truck chuckled lightly to himself and remained at the mouth of the alley in the shadows, watching.

CHAPTER XXVI-A MAN OF MYSTERY

Muggs, crouched down behind the wheel, watched the fine rain beat against the wind shield of the roadster, and hoped he would not have to remain in that position of inaction for long.

He observed a man approaching along the sidewalk, a man who glanced at the apartment houses as if seeking a certain one. Directly opposite the roadster this man stopped, looked around for an instant, and then hurried over to Muggs.

"Know where the Albemarle Apartments might be?" he asked.

"They might be almost any place, but I've got an idea you'll find them in the middle of the next block," Muggs replied. "It's a big, white, brick building."

"Thanks," the other growled.

He turned away-and as quickly turned back again. Reflection from the light on the corner flashed from something he held in his hand. A small cloud of vapor rushed at Muggs' face. Muggs gasped, and his head fell forward.

Instantly the other man sprang into the roadster, lifted the unconscious form of Muggs from the driver's seat, and placed it in the rear seat, afterward throwing a robe over it. Then he took Muggs'

place behind the wheel, crouched forward, waiting.

The motor cyclist stopped beside the roadster at this moment.

"Got him all right?" he asked.

"Cinch! Muggs is now sleeping peacefully in the rear beneath a heavy robe. I sure caught him off guard."

"Well, Verbeck is the next job. He may stay in there talkin' to his girl half the night, and he may be out in three minutes. It'll be a game of wait, I guess. I'll hang around to give help, if you need it, and be ready to jump in as soon as you get him. You gave Muggs a heavy shot, didn't you?"

"I guess he's good for half an hour in dreamland, all right."

"Verbeck wants to get a heavy shot, too. When we get out on the river road we can bind and gag the two of 'em. Careful now. If we miss out on this the big boss'll half kill us."

"I ain't never failed him yet, not the Bl--"

"Cut it!" the motor cyclist exclaimed. "Be gentle with that name around these parts. This is the home of Verbeck's fiancee, remember, and Heaven knows what sort of cops might be posted around here. I'd better duck now."

He left the roadster and walked a short distance down the street, finally coming to a stop against a wall. There he waited in the shadows, as did the driver of the light truck at the mouth of the alley. The truck driver had witnessed the undoing of Muggs, and had chuckled some at it, but had made no move to interfere. Little cared he if the Black Star's men rendered Roger Verbeck's chauffeur unconscious and hurled him into the rear of the roadster!

Fifteen minutes pa.s.sed. The motor cyclist left his retreat and walked up and down the street now and then. The man in Verbeck's car remained crouched behind the wheel of the machine, and the truck driver at the alley's mouth did not change his position.

Then the front door of the apartment house was opened, and a man and woman stood framed in it for a moment. The woman stepped back, and the door was closed again; the man turned up the collar of his raincoat and stepped briskly down the steps and toward the waiting roadster.

The watcher at the mouth of the alley betrayed some interest now. The motor cyclist left his place of seclusion and walked forward slowly, head bent as if against the force of the storm.

"Home, Muggs!"

The man who had taken Muggs' place reached forward as he heard the words and found the seat beside him occupied. And for the second time that evening he turned swiftly and discharged a cloud of vapor from the pistol he carried. For the second time also that vapor rendered a man unconscious instantly.

"Great! Walked right into the trap!" It was the motor cyclist who spoke. He got into the car and aided his companion in putting the second unconscious man in the rear, under the robe. "Better let her out now!" he went on. "We've got 'em both-Verbeck and Muggs. I reckon we caught 'em off their guard. They didn't expect to get that vapor stuff right here on the boulevard. Great idea of the boss to always give a man what he doesn't expect! I guess this'll put a crimp into young and handsome Mr. Verbeck. Nail the boss, will he? Huh!"

The other had turned the roadster, and now it darted up the boulevard at a speed perilously near the limit allowed by city ordinance. From the mouth of the alley darted the light truck, and took up the pursuit. The driver of it was chuckling again, evidently at the ease with which the Black Star's men had made Verbeck and Muggs captives.