AN EMPTY NET
Muggs never forgot that wild ride in the flivver. The street-car
conductor drove the little machine as if it had been a racing car. It
lurched around corners, almost ran down traffic policemen, swung ahead
of street cars. The conductor was like a maniac. He always had craved
excitement and adventure. Now it had come to him, and he intended to
make the most of it.
They dashed up to the Branniton residence, and Muggs, not even thinking
of thanking the conductor, sprang out and rushed across the lawn.
"Boss! boss!" he shrieked above the din.
Somebody told him that Verbeck was on the veranda. He rushed there and
found his employer.
"Boss, was I in time?" he asked. "I got loose as soon as I could!"
"You bet you were, Muggs. The Black Star's inside, with some of his
gang!"
"I told the big stiff this was goin' to be his unlucky night! You give
me a chance to get at him, boss! I've got a few scores to settle with
that bird!"
"We'll all get at him, Muggs! We'll be inside in a minute!"
The doors and windows were crashing in now. Policemen and deputies were
pouring into the house. Shots greeted them, shots from both automatics
and vapor guns. They struggled through clouds of the pungent vapor,
here and there a man dropping because he had inhaled some of the fumes.
They grappled with men in black robes and masks. Through the house they
fought, while outside were others who watched every exit and caught
those who tried to get away from the place.
One of the deputies had been an electrician formerly, and he knew where
the light switches were located in the Branniton house. He fought his
way to the kitchen, found them, and turned on the lights.
Things were better for the policemen and deputies after that. They could
tell friends from foes. The Black Star's men barricaded themselves in
certain rooms. Some of them threw down their weapons and held up their
hands in token of surrender, and were immediately seized and handcuffed.
The others were cleared from the lower floor, fought up the wide stairs,
and continued the battle on the second floor.
Verbeck and Muggs were in the thick of the fight. They were looking for
the Black Star. So were the chief, and Sheriff Kowen. They searched the
basement and the rooms on the ground floor, but found no trace of him.
"He's on the second floor!" Verbeck cried. "Up we go!"
The guests who had been held prisoners were released from the room in
which they had been locked. The women fled to the lawn, and across it to
the street. Some of the men went with them; others joined in the fray.
There was a crowd in the street now and more people were arriving every
minute. Word had flashed throughout the city that the Black Star and his
followers had been cornered in the residence of Richard Branniton.
The members of the band were being caught rapidly. A few had been
wounded, a few officers also. But the criminals were scattered now, and
here and there one surrendered, or was overpowered.
Verbeck and Muggs, the chief and the sheriff thought of nothing but the
Black Star. They knew that the policemen and deputies could care for the
others of the band. It was the master criminal himself that they wanted,
to put him behind prison bars once more, to have years added to his
sentence, to send him to the big prison up the river where he no longer
would be a menace to society at large.
They ran from room to room, searching for him. They shrieked suggestions
to one another above the din of the battle. They found a room at one end
of the upper hall, with the door locked, and hurled themselves against
it and broke it in.
There they saw the man they wanted. He had thrown off his robe and mask.
He held a bomb in his hand--and stopped them with a gesture.
"Wait!" he commanded. "This is not a vapor bomb--it is the real thing.
It can blow all of us to bits! So four of you came to get me, eh? Mr.
Verbeck, and the chief and the sheriff--and Muggs. I suppose, since you
are free and here, that you did all this, Muggs?"
"You bet I did!" Muggs cried.
"Wait, gentlemen! Don't make a move to raise a weapon, or we all will be
hurled into the hereafter." The Black Star stepped back toward a window.
"I suppose you have me cornered," he said. "I suppose you think you are
going to take me back to jail. But it happens that I have one card yet
to play!"
He hurled the bomb, and it exploded. It was a vapor bomb, after all.
The cloud of pungent gas assailed them. They whirled to either side,
away from it. There was a crash of glass.
"He's gone through the window!" Muggs shrieked.
Trying to keep from breathing, they rushed to the window, got through it
and to the roof of the veranda, where they gulped the fresh air!
The Black Star had jumped to the ground. They saw him for an instant.
Then he was lost in the darkness. The chief shouted a warning to his
men.
"Down, and after him!" Verbeck cried.
"We've got him!" cried the chief. "The entire yard is surrounded. He's
in a trap!"
Muggs was the first to reach the ground. He did not stop to climb down
one of the posts, but did as the master criminal had done--jumped.
Verbeck and the chief and Sheriff Kowen were not far behind him.
Officers who had been on the veranda charged after the Black Star in
response to the chief's command.
The net grew tighter. They were in a corner of the lawn, calling to one
another. A police auto drove across the grass, and the searchlight was
turned on.
There was the circle of policemen and deputies, with Verbeck and Muggs,
the chief and the sheriff at one side of it.
But the Black Star was gone!