CHAPTER VII--IDENTICAL ORDERS
Eight o'clock that night found Roger Verbeck in the Black Star'sheadquarters, the room put in order, and the candles burning. He wassitting at the end of the long table, in robe and mask, and with thelittle rubber stamps he was busy writing out orders. All the orderswere identical; the ones previously written by the Black Star had beendestroyed.
Promptly at nine o'clock the little bell on the wall tinkled, andVerbeck, shutting the drawer in the table and holding his automatic inreadiness beneath his robe, went to the wall and pressed the buttonthat opened the door. He hurried from the room, and waited.
Presently he entered again, to find a masked and robed figure standingbefore the blackboard. Number and countersign were given, and Verbeckhanded the man his orders and a twenty-dollar bill taken from thedrawer in the table. The man bowed and went out.
Nine-thirty brought another man, and the same ceremony was observed.Ten o'clock brought the member of the band to whom Verbeck had givenorders the night before. After he had written his number andcountersign, Verbeck whirled to the blackboard.
"Report," he wrote.
"Browning Club meeting was postponed, and I missed the person youmentioned," the other scribbled on the board. "I followed her, andspoke with her later in a tea room. She will wear her jewels,including the famous ruby collar."
Verbeck nodded for the man to erase. Again he found himself wonderingat the identity of this man who could talk so freely to FredaBrakeland. And now he wrote on the blackboard himself:
"Why did you not carry out orders?"
"Pardon, but I did."
"You appeared at the corner I mentioned?"
"Yes. Nobody approached me, so I went on as ordered."
Verbeck wondered whether the man was speaking the truth, whether hehad appeared at the corner, as ordered, and Verbeck had missed him. Itwas possible, he knew, because of the throng of shoppers. And, again----The robe effectually disguised the man before him, but Verbeckimagined he was taller than Howard Wendell. He told himself again hewas a fool to think that the man before him was his fiancee's brother.He had half a notion to order him to remove his mask, but thoughtbetter of it. This man was a crook, could be nothing else. And Verbeckdared do nothing that would arouse suspicion and endanger the plan hehad formed.
"Very well," he wrote on the board; then went to the table and tossedthe proper envelope toward the other.
The man picked it up and read the orders. It seemed to Verbeck that heappeared startled. He went to the blackboard and wrote again:
"Are you sure, sir, that these are my orders?"
"Yes," Verbeck wrote.
"Must I carry them out?"
"They must be carried out--to the letter," wrote Verbeck.
The other hesitated a moment, then wrote rapidly on the board:
"You are unfair, but I am unable to help myself."
And then, as Verbeck started forward, the other saluted and darted outof the door, to hurry down the dusty hall. Roger returned to thetable. He half wished he had forced the other man to remove his mask.
Ten-thirty o'clock brought a woman. Verbeck knew she was a womanbecause he could see her hands, the fingers covered with rings and thebottom of her skirts showed beneath the robe. Her writing on theblackboard was unmistakably feminine, too. The Black Star had saidthat women belonged to his organization, but Verbeck had notanticipated meeting one in this house; he had believed they worked onorders transmitted by others.
"Everything arranged," the woman wrote on the board. "It will be easy.I'll get the necklace about three o'clock in the morning and hide itwhere you ordered. It may be found there any time after four o'clock."
Here Verbeck found himself facing something of which he knew nothing,some crime already outlined by the Black Star.
"Disregard all previous orders," he wrote, "for the time being. I havenew orders for you, and you'll attend to them first. Do youunderstand?"
"Yes," she wrote.
He threw her envelope on the table, and she read the instructions itcontained. She, too, scribbled a protest on the blackboard.
"Isn't it dangerous?" she wrote.
"Carry out your orders. You do not know all the scheme, remember."
"I understand. I'll obey."
Then she hurried out.
At eleven o'clock the bell tinkled again, and Verbeck admitted anotherof the band. This one, too, was a woman. She appeared timid, whereasthe first had given every indication of being used to this sort ofthing. Her hand trembled as she wrote her number on the board. Thenshe gave her countersign and waited.
Evidently she was not working on a case, but had reported to getorders. Verbeck had no orders ready for her, for her number had notbeen on the list he had found in the Black Star's book. Apparentlythis was her first visit, or else the Black Star had not contemplatedmaking use of her at the present time.
He took orders he had printed for one of the others and put them onthe end of the table, motioning for her to pick them up and read. Asshe advanced toward the table, Verbeck found that her eyes were uponhim, and she seemed afraid to touch the envelope. She opened itfinally, read quickly, and Verbeck thought she gave a little cry. Shestaggered backward, but seemed to regain her composure as he startedforward to aid her, and backed away from him. The sheet of paperfluttered from her hand to the floor.
Verbeck stooped and picked it up, and handed it to her. She did notseem to see it--she was looking down at Verbeck's hand. Like a wildthing, she whirled around and rushed back to the blackboard and seizedthe chalk.
"Where did you get that ring?" she wrote rapidly.
Verbeck answered on his board:
"Why? Do you fancy it?"
"Where did you get it?"
"That is my personal and private business," he wrote. The ring was apeculiar 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 toput it to her face; she dropped it again; her eyes burned intoVerbeck's from behind her mask; then she gave a cry that expressedpain and despair, and hurried through the door and into the hall.
"Well, what do you think of that?" Verbeck mused. "Was she reallyfrightened or only playing a part? I wonder if the Black Star has beentreating her badly and has made her afraid of him? She seemed awfullyinterested in my ring--because she'd never noticed it on the BlackStar's hand, I suppose. If she should be suspicious---- But she couldn'tdo anything if she was!"
The members of the band continued to arrive at intervals, but therewere no more women. Verbeck received their numbers and countersigns,and gave out copies of the orders. At three o'clock in the morning hedecided there were no more to come. Two women and eight men had beenreceived during the night--ten persons had walked into the trap he hadconstructed. Less than twenty-four hours, and the Black Star and hisband would be in the hands of the police. Verbeck felt that he hadplanned well.
At half past three o'clock he left the house and walked five blocks tocatch an owl car. Half an hour later he was on the boulevard,approaching the building in which he had his rooms. As he reached thesteps of the apartment house he happened to turn and glance down thestreet. He saw a man dodge behind a lamp-post a short distance away.
Verbeck stepped into the vestibule, waited a moment, then stepped outagain quickly. Again he saw the man dodge behind the post.
Darting down the steps, Verbeck ran toward the man. A shadowy formrushed across the driveway and lost itself in the shadows of theunderbrush. Verbeck stopped and retraced his steps. He doubted whetherhe could catch the man, and he wasn't inclined to pursue him at thathour of the morning. Perhaps it was not a man watching him, but alurking thief, he thought, and at the same time he felt that he hadbeen under surveillance.