MYSTERY AND AN ALARM
Muggs drove the powerful roadster slowly through the streets. The
newsboys were crying extra editions of the evening papers, editions that
had a great deal in them concerning the master crook and his intentions.
Verbeck had Muggs stop, and bought the papers, and was glad to see that
there was no inkling of Kowen's discovery in them.
Verbeck did not feel satisfied. Remembering the Black Star's methods, he
could not convince himself that the master rogue would let himself be
captured again just as he inaugurated his campaign of crime. If the
National Trust Company was to be robbed, the Black Star would be there
in person, unless he had changed his tactics, for previously he always
had commanded his men during a big crime.
But even the greatest criminals are wrecked by trivial accidents,
Verbeck knew well, and so he tried to tell himself that it was a
careless woman member of the band who had betrayed the crook's
headquarters and plans. Yet it was foreign to the character of The
Princess, as Mamie Blanchard was called by the members of the
organization, to be careless.
"Well, we'll know the truth soon!" Roger Verbeck told himself.
They reached police headquarters and went inside. The chief was waiting
for them.
"Everything ready!" he announced. "We're going to land that crook quick
this time! I'm taking no chances, you can bet! I'll have every available
man around the National Trust Company's building. I've got some of them
inside right now, and in the adjoining building, and there will be a
crowd in the alley and in the streets."
"I went up and took a look at that cottage," Verbeck said.
"So that's what you were up to!" Muggs put in.
"How did it look?" the chief asked.
"Well, I can't swear to it, of course, but that basement room looked
like the one where the Black Star had me last night; and the orders
Kowen told us about were on the table. I didn't touch them, but I read
them."
"Let us hope the crook doesn't get wise to the fact that we are on to
him," said the chief.
"The chances are," said Verbeck, "that he had completed his work when
Kowen and his men got inside the house, and that the Blanchard woman was
the last of the band to visit there to-day. If the Black Star follows
out his usual method, he'll hurry back there after he pulls off the
robbery, providing we don't get him at the bank."
"And if he dodges us at the bank, the men will pick him up when he goes
back to the cottage--very pretty!" the chief said. "Verbeck, I have an
idea that we are going to win to-night. The rogue's good luck has
deserted him, that's all."
The chief opened a box of cigars and passed it around. From time to time
a sergeant came in to report about men being posted. Now and then some
detective telephoned rumors and information he had gathered.
"The streets are jammed," the chief said, after one of these telephone
calls. "The blamed newspapers are out with big stories of how the Black
Star telephoned them that he would start his campaign of crime at
midnight. Well, somebody in the mob might get hurt, but it helps us, in
a way. It has been easier for us to get our men placed without some of
the crook's gang reporting the fact to him."
"Oh, the chances are that he knows all about it," Verbeck said. "And he
probably doesn't care. The Black Star is original, don't forget that.
He'll not try to rob that trust company in any usual manner. He'll get
into the building with his men in some way we do not expect, and if
we're not on guard he'll get out again--with bags of gold. Did you
inform the bank officials?"
"Great Scott, no!" gasped the chief. "They'd light up the place, remove
the gold, give the whole thing away. We want to catch the Black Star.
I'll guarantee that he'll never get away with anything there to-night.
You don't seem to have much confidence, Verbeck."
"I haven't," Verbeck admitted. "I fought the Black Star before, you
know. I can't make myself think that he will walk into a trap--yet
everything seems to point toward it. Well, I'll be going, I guess. It is
eleven o'clock now."
Muggs followed him to the curb, and this time Verbeck took the wheel
when they got into the roadster. He drove through the city and toward
the place where he lived, and, when he was sure that he was not being
followed, he circled through the streets and approached the retail
section of the city again.
Verbeck parked the roadster several blocks away from the National Trust
Company. Then he and Muggs made their way through the crowd in the
street, their caps pulled down over their eyes, Verbeck hoping that he
would escape recognition.
They went through an alley, and stopped in the darkness just before they
reached the other street. The rear of the trust company building was
just opposite them.
"A quarter to twelve," Verbeck whispered. "The chief is to meet us here.
The sergeants know where he is to be in case he is needed quickly."
"Why not get into the bank building?" Muggs asked. "Are we going to stay
here in the alley and let a bunch of policemen do this thing? Gee, boss,
ain't we goin' to handle it ourselves?"
"We'll be right on hand, Muggs, if anything starts," Verbeck promised
him. "Don't worry about that!"
Five minutes later, the chief found them there.
"Now for the big drama!" the chief whispered. "Everybody is set and
ready. That master criminal, as he calls himself, is due to receive the
surprise of his life in a few minutes. I only hope he is on the job
himself--glad to nab any of his crowd, of course, but he is the man we
want in particular."
"Those orders read 'midnight,'" Verbeck said. "If he carries them out,
we haven't long to wait."
"Got an idea he won't carry 'em out?" the chief asked.
"He may know that we are aware of his intention," Verbeck replied. "He
isn't fool enough to walk into a trap when he knows where the trap is,
you know."
The chief flashed his torch and glanced at his watch.
"Well, it's three minutes of midnight now," he said. "I wonder how he'll
try it."
"He certainly will not walk up to the front door and break it down,"
said Verbeck, chuckling.
"I've got men in the basements of the buildings on both sides of the
trust company," the chief said. "If he tries to use a tunnel, he'll find
himself caught."
"He came down from the sky on one occasion," Verbeck reminded the chief.
"Look!" Muggs cried.
He had glanced up at the sky as Verbeck spoke, and now was clutching at
their sleeves and asking them to look up, too. Far above the city a
bright light appeared, a light that traveled in circles. It grew larger
and brighter rapidly. It blazed forth like a monster searchlight, and
bathed in splendor the building of the National Trust Company.
"Airplane!" Muggs gasped.
"Then he's a long way up in the air," said the chief. "An airplane makes
considerable noise! It isn't an airplane!"
"Then what is it?" Verbeck asked.
"You've got me--but it isn't an airplane, or, if it is, it must be a
couple of miles high. That light doesn't seem to be that high up."
The crowds in the street were yelling and shrieking now. The searchlight
continued to bathe the trust company's building in brilliance. The
police and deputies posted around the corner were amazed. Sheriff Kowen,
on the other side of the building, ran around like an insane man,
calling upon his men to do something.
The light was extinguished; and again it blazed forth, and this time it
swept up and down the alley, revealing the chief and Verbeck and Muggs,
and officers who had been posted there.
"The Black Star has something to do with that!" the chief said.
"And he's spotted us!" said Verbeck.
"Then we lose, for he'll not try to rob the trust company."
"Don't be too sure of that! Some of his band may be in there now, and
this light, wherever it is, may be to attract our attention while other
men carry away the loot."
"I've got plenty of men in the building," the chief replied, "and
they'll flash a signal the moment they see anybody that doesn't belong
in there. That light gets me. How high do you suppose it is?"
"It's comin' closer to the ground," said Muggs.
Once more the light was extinguished, and the crowds in the street grew
silent. Again it blazed forth, and this time it was so bright and near
that a man could not look into it.
Then they heard a laugh, and the well-known voice of the Black Star.
"Hello, chief! Hello, Verbeck and Muggs! Watching the trust company, are
you? I'm afraid that'll not do any good!"
The chief drew his revolver and fired rapidly into the air. The Black
Star's sarcastic laugh reached them, and the light was extinguished
again. The sky was black; they saw nothing, heard nothing.
"What kind of a thing is this?" the chief gasped. "He wasn't more than
a hundred feet above us when he spoke. What can it be? He can't be in an
airplane, or we'd hear the roar of the engine!"
"And his band is probably looting the vault of the trust company right
now, or has looted it!" Verbeck said.
He ran quickly across the street, and Muggs and the chief followed at
his heels. They knocked on a rear door of the building, and it was
opened at once.
"Everything all right?" the chief asked.
"Nothing doing yet, chief," replied the detective who had opened the
door.
"We'll take a look and make sure," the chief said. "I don't like this
business at all!"
They went through a corridor and found the two watchmen. They had the
lights in the vault room switched on.
"That vault hasn't been touched," Verbeck said, "unless they have
tunneled from beneath. The door hasn't been opened."
"That crook was wise," the chief declared. "He knew that we were here
waiting for him. How he found it out is more than I can tell--some of
Sheriff Kowen's carelessness, I suppose."
A detective came running toward them through the corridor.
"Chief!" he shrieked. "Sergeant just came from headquarters! He says
that the Black Star's gang is looting the First National--just got the
alarm!"