CHAPTER XXXIII--PUZZLED POLICE
As he ceased speaking, the Black Star turned suddenly and gave hisprisoner a shot from the vapor gun. His own men evidently had guessedwhat was coming, for they turned their faces away, and each held asmall sponge to his nostrils, for in that close space the vapor seemedtwice as heavy.
"Quick, now!" the master criminal instructed his men. "I don't knowhow it happens that the police came down on us, but they're here, andI suppose the block is surrounded. We can't go up, and we can't godown--yet. The men upstairs must have been overcome, since the fightinghas stopped, and the bank is full of police. So we'll try the halfwaystation."
He tugged at the cable, and the car stopped. He flashed his torch onthe wall, and then pulled the cable again and forced the car to ascendas slowly as possible, while he looked closely at the wall.
"Here's the scratch we made," he said finally, and stopped the box. Hepressed against the wall, and a new aperture showed. "In with you," heinstructed, "and don't forget the loot."
The three men stepped past him and into a tiny room that had beenconstructed between the walls, halfway from the first floor to thethird. The Black Star followed, turned to tug at the cable and sendthe box on to the top of the shaft, and then closed the opening andturned to face his three men and his unconscious prisoner.
"Here we are!" he said. "Speak in whispers now, and we'll be allright. We have some ventilation here, and you may smoke if you wish.This little room was connected with an airshaft in the building,you'll remember. You see what forethought does? I had this constructedjust for such an emergency. The percentage of chance was against itever being needed, but I thought it better to take no chance, and yousee what it has meant. That is why I always win. I prepare for everypossible contingency."
The police, at that moment, were trying it. Down below, the chief wasordering his men to hammer through the wall, since they were unable tofind the spring that released the panel. Those above had beenunsuccessful in their search for the spring, too, and both above andbelow officers were smashing at the wall with axes, trying to cuttheir way through.
Down in the bank, Muggs was raging.
"I knew you'd let him get away!" he cried. "I knew it!"
"We've got him trapped," the chief answered.
"How do you know it? Ain't you got some respect for the Black Star'sschemes by this time?"
"We'll get him--you're worrying about Verbeck, that's all. I don'tthink he'll hurt your boss."
"The Black Star'll get out some way!"
"Take it easy, Muggs," the chief advised. "We've got the entire blocksurrounded. Every door and window is being watched. Why, I've even gotmen watching the sewer connections. Not a rat could get out of thisblock without being seen and caught."
"Yeh? We had him surrounded in a house once out on the river, anddidn't he get to the roof and streak it away in an aeroplane?"
"Well, you may be sure he hasn't any plane on the roof of thisbuilding, Muggs. He couldn't have driven it here and landed--he'd havebeen smashed to bits, and, besides, some one would have heard or seenhim. An aeroplane makes a noise. And he didn't have any on the roof atsupper time, because one of the watchmen we found bound and gaggedlives up there, and he just told me he'd seen nothing suspicious.We've got him in a trap, I tell you."
The wall crashed in, and the men fell back, half expecting to face afight with the Black Star and his men. But their torches showed them adark shaft running up between the walls and a cable in one corner ofit, and that was all.
They cleared away the debris. Up in the lodge hall the other policemensmashed through the wall, too, and sent a shower of bricks and plasterdown. Through the shaft they held conversation with those below.
"That box business is up here, chief, but she's empty," one of the mencalled.
"What's that--empty?"
"Not a sign of anybody in it or anything. It was at the top of theshaft."
The chief sputtered a moment in impotent rage, and then shouted hisorders up the shaft.
"Two or three of you get into that blamed thing and come down, and youexamine the walls every inch of the way. Keep your torches going andhave your guns ready. I tell you they've got to be in the shaftsomewhere!"
Then he stepped back and waited. The cable moved, and by glancing intothe shaft the chief and his men could see that the box was descendingslowly. The chief turned to send a captain outside to warn the men whosurrounded the block that closer watch was to be kept.
"They're in this block--and they can't get out without being nabbed!"he declared.
And then the box struck the bottom of the shaft, and with a sigh ofrelief a lieutenant and two men crawled out.
"Not a thing!" he reported. "We examined every foot of the walls, andthere isn't a crack nor a hole a mouse could get through. The top ofthe shaft is solid wall, and so is the bottom. The Black Star andthree of his men went in there and took Verbeck with them, and they'vegone up in smoke or something!"
"You're a fool!" the chief retorted.
He got in the box himself with two men, and went up and came downagain, and confessed himself bewildered. Reports came in from thestreets that not a person had left the block. The Black Star and theothers, it seemed, had melted into thin air and drifted out and away.
The Black Star at that moment was chuckling softly and assuringhimself that his prisoner was not regaining consciousness. He had usedthe vapor gun in the box before reaching this hole in the wall,because he didn't want his prisoner to know where he had been. For theBlack Star intended having his little joke.
He and his three men had held their sides to keep from laughing aloudas the police went up and down the shaft, so close to them at timesthat they could hear the muttered curses of the officers.
"The entrance to this little room was the best job of all," he said."They could look right at it and not see it, and, if they did see it,they couldn't get in."
"But we're due for quite a rest here," one of his men complained.
"Don't get nervous," the master criminal warned. "We are due to getout of here before daylight, and don't you forget that. Don't thinkthat I intend to stay here all day to-morrow, waiting for to-morrownight. If we did we might find that the stupid police had sealed upthe bottom and top of the shaft. That'd be lovely, wouldn't it?"
He chuckled again as his three men shuddered at the thought of beinginterred alive. He went to the wall and pressed against it, and thepanel slid back three or four inches. Leaning forward carefully, theBlack Star glanced down.
He could see the flashes of the police torches at the bottom of theshaft, and he could hear Muggs and the chief in a lively argument.Glancing up, he saw the flash of a torch at the top. He reached out,knowing that his hand could not be seen unless several torches wereflashed down the shaft at the same time, and pulled at the cable. Thebox began to ascend.
It was halfway to the hole in the wall before the chief noticed it,and then, thinking the men above were raising it, he shouted for themto lower it again. While they conversed by shrieks and yells, theBlack Star brought the box opposite the sliding panel and gripped thecable there.
The men below and the men above tugged at the cable, but the boxremained in place. The Black Star, still chuckling, took pencil andpaper from his pocket and scribbled a note, and pinned it to thebreast of the unconscious man before him. Then he tumbled his prisonerinto the box.
"Go down to your friend, the chief, and mystify him, my dear Mr.Verbeck," the Black Star said. "You have not indulged in much actionthis evening. I trust the chief will unbind you, and that when youregain consciousness you'll join in the chase."
He chuckled again, tugged at the cable, and sent the box downward, andthen closed the panel and sat down beside his men.
"Listen now, and you'll hear a roar!" he exclaimed.
"But how are we goin' to get out, sir?" one of the crooks asked.
"Don't worry about that. What time is it?"
The man flashed a torch and glanced at h
is watch.
"It's almost two o'clock."
"Ha! Then we'd better get out of here within the hour. It'll bedaylight by four-thirty, and I want to be back at headquarters beforethen. You know how I am going, of course."
"I know how you'll go if you get out of here," the man replied."Getting out of here is what is worrying me."
"Don't worry--it causes gray hairs. Listen!"
They could hear a commotion at the bottom of the shaft. The box hadreached its destination, and the bound, gagged, and unconscious manhad been seen and taken out.
"It's Verbeck!" the chief cried. "He's doped, or something!"
"Vapor gun!" Muggs explained.
"Then they've sent him back to us. But where did he come from? Answerme that! He didn't come from the top, and there's no place betweenhere and the top where he could come from. Unbind him, you men, andtake that gag off. Maybe he can tell us something when he gets rid ofthat vapor dope. What's this--a note?"
One of the men held his torch, and the chief read it swiftly:
Dear Chief: Here is Roger Verbeck safe and sound. Since you don't seem able to make very much war against me, perhaps you'll revive Verbeck and let him get into the game. I've kept him pretty quiet to-night. I'm sending him to you out of the sky, my dear chief, you might say. At least, you don't know where I am sending him from, and cannot find out. I don't know how you got on my trail so swiftly to-night, but it didn't save the bank from losing a vast sum, and didn't help you much, did it?
*****
"If I ever get my two hands on that man he'll never live to standtrial!" the chief promised. "Verbeck conscious yet? We've got to lookinto this business. I tell you the Black Star's somewhere in thisbuilding. He's somewhere in that shaft----"
"But he can't be," a lieutenant protested. "There isn't a place in theshaft where a man could leave the box."
"Nevertheless----"
"Verbeck's come to!" one of the men cried.
They knelt beside him, aided him to sit up, tried to get him to talk.They shot questions at him as bullets come from a machine gun, and hewaved them away.
"Where did they take you, Verbeck?" the chief demanded.
"I--don't know. I've been unconscious----"
"All the time?"
"They did it--just after the box started up. That's the last Iknew--until now."
"They're in that shaft!" the chief cried. "I'm going up again to see!"