"Why? Do you fancy it?"

"Where did you get it?"

"That is my personal and private business," he wrote. The ring was a peculiar signet he had picked up abroad and had worn for years.

The woman dropped the chalk to the floor. She raised one hand as if to put it to her face; she dropped it again; her eyes burned into Verbeck's from behind her mask; then she gave a cry that expressed pain and despair, and hurried through the door and into the hall.

"Well, what do you think of that?" Verbeck mused. "Was she really frightened or only playing a part? I wonder if the Black Star has been treating her badly and has made her afraid of him? She seemed awfully interested in my ring-because she'd never noticed it on the Black Star's hand, I suppose. If she should be suspicious-- But she couldn't do anything if she was!"

The members of the band continued to arrive at intervals, but there were no more women. Verbeck received their numbers and countersigns, and gave out copies of the orders. At three o'clock in the morning he decided there were no more to come. Two women and eight men had been received during the night-ten persons had walked into the trap he had constructed. Less than twenty-four hours, and the Black Star and his band would be in the hands of the police. Verbeck felt that he had planned well.

At half past three o'clock he left the house and walked five blocks to catch an owl car. Half an hour later he was on the boulevard, approaching the building in which he had his rooms. As he reached the steps of the apartment house he happened to turn and glance down the street. He saw a man dodge behind a lamp-post a short distance away.

Verbeck stepped into the vestibule, waited a moment, then stepped out again quickly. Again he saw the man dodge behind the post.

Darting down the steps, Verbeck ran toward the man. A shadowy form rushed across the driveway and lost itself in the shadows of the underbrush. Verbeck stopped and retraced his steps. He doubted whether he could catch the man, and he wasn't inclined to pursue him at that hour of the morning. Perhaps it was not a man watching him, but a lurking thief, he thought, and at the same time he felt that he had been under surveillance.

CHAPTER VIII-THE POLICE GET A TIP

Verbeck arose at noon to face the day that meant the culmination of his plans. As he bathed and shaved and dressed he kept thinking of the prowler he had seen a few hours before. Could it be possible, he asked himself, that some of the Black Star's band had grown suspicious and would take an active part against him? Had the Black Star, a prisoner in the old Verbeck house, sent out some message from his prison calling for rescue? Verbeck was half afraid he had made some blunder, had overlooked something that would allow the master criminal to turn the tables and emerge victor from the duel of wits.

He telephoned the garage for his roadster, and hurried out to the old Verbeck place, taking with him a lineman from the telephone company's office. The lineman connected the telephone, which had been out of service.

"How is the prisoner?" Verbeck asked Muggs after the lineman had departed.

"Down in the vegetable pit, thinking of his sins."

"Fetch him up," Verbeck directed, and began carrying in the food he had purchased before running out from town.

It was a surly Black Star who entered the living room, with Muggs at his heels urging him on. He no longer was handsome because of a two days' growth of beard and dark circles under his eyes. He glared at Muggs malevolently as he crossed the room and sat down stiffly on a divan.

"How long," he demanded of Verbeck, "are you going to keep me prisoner, with a maniac for jailer?"

"Probably until a late hour to-night. But you need not be confined in the pit again. I'm going to have Muggs keep you in this room, where it is warm and comfortable. I want to give you a bit of liberty until to-night."

"And then?"

"Then I'll probably hand you over to the police, and you'll have mighty small freedom for years to come."

"Indeed?" the Black Star snarled. "You have arranged everything, have you? Planned a coup of some sort?"

"Time will tell," said Verbeck.

"And don't you ever stop to fear for yourself?"

"I haven't felt particularly afraid at any time."

"I have warned you that the arm of my organization--"

"Is a long one-I remember," said Verbeck. "The arm of the law also is long, Mr. Black Star, and a clever, honest man can outwit a clever crook any time, as I said once before. You called it a boast, I believe."

"You are not done yet."

"Certainly not-but I'll be done within a few hours."

Verbeck walked to a corner and beckoned Muggs to him.

"I'll return to-night, some time after nine o'clock," he said. "I want you to watch the Black Star well, Muggs. If he escapes now--"

"Why don't you call in the police, boss?"

"And spoil everything? I'm going through with this now-I'm going to nab the Black Star and his gang."

"Then there's something big coming off, and I'm not to be in on it?"

Muggs demanded.

"Neither am I, Muggs-at the moment it comes off. But we'll both be in at the finish-and we'll be there strong. Just curb your curiosity, Muggs, until this evening. I'll explain everything then. Careful, now, and don't let the Black Star escape. I fancy you've been aggravating him."

"Aw, boss--"

"He looks it. Haven't you?"

"I was just reciting a list of his sins, boss."

"Well, Muggs, recite less and keep your eyes open more. Watch every move he makes. Don't you use that telephone, and don't let the Black Star get near it. I had it connected so we can use it to-night. Now I'm off!"

He got in the roadster and started back downtown. He stopped before a suburban drug store and went into a telephone booth. He had not wanted to send this telephone message from his own apartment nor from the old Verbeck place, for it might be traced.

He called police headquarters, and asked to be connected with the chief. No, he said, the chief's secretary wouldn't do. It was something about the Black Star.

In a moment he heard the chief's gruff voice.

"Listen carefully," Verbeck told him, "for I am not going to repeat what I say or answer questions. This is very important, and if you disregard it you'll be sorry. Have your secretary get on the phone extension and take down in shorthand what I am going to say."

There was a short wait while the chief made the necessary arrangements, then Verbeck heard himself commanded to speak.

"I have run down and caught the Black Star," he said. "I am holding him prisoner now. I cannot hand him over to you just yet, for, if I did, and the least news of it leaked out, you'd never catch one of his gang, and, without his gang, you never could convict him. Never mind how I know it-I am not talking nonsense. You've got that?"

An excited voice told him that the chief understood.

"Now, listen to this," Verbeck went on. "I have arranged for all the Black Star's band to be at a certain place at the same time, so you and your men can take them all. Keep quiet, chief, and don't ask questions. I want you to send men enough to arrest them-eight men and two women are in the crowd. They are to be arrested just when and where I say. If you let as much as one of them escape all my work and yours probably will have been for nothing. When you get them you'll find stolen property on every one. And as soon as I learn you have all of them under arrest I'll turn over the Black Star to you, I'll tell you where and how he met the members of his gang and gave them orders, and I'll let you have the inside workings of one of the smoothest crooks' schemes ever devised. But if you make one false move--"

A torrent of words over the wire stopped him for a moment.

"No questions, I said," he went on. "You have understood so far? Very well! No, I'll not tell you who I am or where I am! Very well, if you'll not listen! I'll call you up later, when you're in a better mood, and explain where you are to make the catch. Good-by!"