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THE BLACK STAR
A section of the floor had swung downward with acrash._Frontispiece_]
The Black Star
A Detective Story
BY JOHNSTON McCULLEY
_Frontispiece by_ EDGAR WITTMACK
CHELSEA HOUSE 79 Seventh Avenue, New York City 1921
Copyright, 1921 By CHELSEA HOUSE
The Black Star
All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian.
CONTENTS
- CHAPTER I--AN AIDED ESCAPE
- CHAPTER II--THE BLACK STAR
- CHAPTER III--INTO THE PIT
- CHAPTER IV--ROGUE FOR A DAY
- CHAPTER V--MUGGS ON GUARD
- CHAPTER VI--AN UNPROFITABLE AFTERNOON
- CHAPTER VII--IDENTICAL ORDERS
- CHAPTER VIII--THE POLICE GET A TIP
- CHAPTER IX--"CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST"
- CHAPTER X--CAUGHT IN A NET
- CHAPTER XI--CLOSE QUARTERS
- CHAPTER XII--AT THE CHARITY BALL
- CHAPTER XIII--MUGGS--GREAT LITTLE MAN
- CHAPTER XIV--UNEXPECTED NEWS
- CHAPTER XV--THE CHALLENGE
- CHAPTER XVI--A NOCTURNAL VISIT
- CHAPTER XVII--INTERRUPTED CONVERSATION
- CHAPTER XVIII--MYSTERIES
- CHAPTER XIX--SUSPICION
- CHAPTER XX--THE VOICE ON THE WIRE
- CHAPTER XXI--THE END OF THE WIRE
- CHAPTER XXII--ON THE SCENT
- CHAPTER XXXII.--INTO THE VAULT
- CHAPTER XXIV--HOW IT ENDED
- CHAPTER XXV--SHADOWED BY THREE
- CHAPTER XXVI--A MAN OF MYSTERY
- CHAPTER XXVII--IN BLACK STAR'S HANDS
- CHAPTER XXVIII--THE POLICE LAUNCH
- CHAPTER XXIX--BLACK STAR TAKES A TRICK
- CHAPTER XXX--MUGGS IN ACTION
- CHAPTER XXXI--IN THE BANK
- CHAPTER XXXII--A NARROW ESCAPE
- CHAPTER XXXIII--PUZZLED POLICE
- CHAPTER XXXIV--WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CHIEF
- CHAPTER XXXV--AN UNEXPECTED BLOW
- CHAPTER XXXVI--IN CUSTODY
THE BLACK STAR
CHAPTER I--AN AIDED ESCAPE
Winds whistled up the river, and winds whistled down from the hills,and they met to swirl and gather fury and rattle the city's millionsof windowpanes. They carried a mixture of sleet and fine snow, thefirst herald of the winter to come. In the business district theyswung signs madly back and forth, and roared around the corners ofhigh office buildings, and swept madly against struggling trolleycars. They poured through the man-made canyons; they dashed out thebroad boulevards--and so they came to the attention of Mr. RogerVerbeck, at about the hour of midnight, as he turned over in his warmbed and debated whether to rise and lower the window or take a chancewith the rapidly lowering temperature.
"Beastly night!" Verbeck confided to himself, and put his head beneaththe covers.
He slept--and suddenly he awakened. A moment before he had been in themidst of a pleasant dream; now every sense was alert, and his righthand, creeping softly under the cover, reached the side of the bed andgrasped an automatic pistol that hung in a rack there.
From the adjoining room--his library--there came no flash of an electrictorch, no footfall, no sound foreign to the apartment, nothing toindicate the presence of an intruder. Yet Verbeck sensed that anintruder was there.
He slipped quietly from the bed, shivering a bit because of the coldwind, put his feet into slippers, and drew on a dressing gown over hispajamas. Then, his pistol held ready for use in case of emergency, hestarted across the bedroom, taking short steps and walking on histoes.
A reflection entered the room from the arc light on the nearest streetcorner. This uncertain light was shut off for an instant, and Verbeckwhirled quickly, silently, to find another man slipping up beside him.It was Muggs--a little, wiry man of uncertain age, who had been inVerbeck's employ for several years, valet at times, comrade in arms attimes, willing adventurer always. Muggs bent forward until his lipswere close to Verbeck's ear.
"I heard it, too, boss," he said. "Somebody in the library!"
Verbeck nodded; they crept nearer the door. Inch by inch, Verbeckpulled aside one of the curtains, until they could peer into the otherroom. A gleam from the corner arc light penetrated the library, too.It revealed the interior of the room in a sort of semi-gloom, causingelusive shadows that flitted here and there in such fashion that theyscarcely could be distinguished from substance. Also, it revealed anopen window near the fire escape--and it showed the form of a manstanding before Verbeck's antique desk in a corner.
Muggs bent beneath his master's arm to see better. He felt Verbeckgrip his shoulder, and looked up to find him indicating the openwindow. Like a shadow, Muggs, who also held a weapon in his hand,slipped through the curtains, crept along the wall, and advancedtoward that window to cut off the intruder's retreat.
An instant Verbeck waited; then he stepped into the room, found theelectric switch, and snapped on the lights, and leveled his automatic.
The man before the desk whirled with a snarl that showed two rows ofjagged, uneven, yellow teeth. He took in the situation at a glance,saw Muggs at the window, and Verbeck at the door, and knew he had beencaught in a trap. His eyes narrowed and flashed; he bent forward,giving the appearance of a rat at bay, and his hand dropped slowlytoward his hip.
"Better not!" There was a certain quality in Verbeck's voice that toldthe burglar the man before him was neither nervous nor afraid, andwould shoot if necessary. The thief's hands went above his head intoken of surrender, and the belligerent light that had been in hiseyes faded.
"It appears," said Verbeck, "that we have discovered you in a delicateposition."
"Aw, don't try to be clever! I guess you've got me, all right!"
"Rather unceremonious, this call," Verbeck went on. "Why didn't yousend up your card from the office?"
"Aw----"
"Be seated, please!"
Still holding his hands above his head, the burglar took the chairVerbeck indicated.
"Now, Muggs----" Verbeck said.
Muggs had been waiting for the word. He sprang away from the windowand took the cords from the portieres. Working swiftly, he bound theburglar's hands behind his back, then fastened them to the chair. Thenhe assumed the role of guard, and Verbeck lowered his pistol andwalked toward the desk.
"I fancy you didn't find much, my man," he said. "This is a bachelorapartment, you know, and there is little of value in the libraryunless you seek books or pictures."
"Aw----"
"If you had entered the dressing room now---- But, of course, if you haddone that, Muggs probably would have filled you full of lead first,and made a complete investigation afterward. It is better for you thatyou didn't enter there. Why you should crawl into a bachelor'sapartment, when there are so many pretentious residences where silverand plate are to be found, not to speak of women's jewels, is morethan I can fathom. You must be an amateur at this sort of thing. Um!What is this?"
On the desk was a sealed letter addressed to Mr. Roger Verbeck, theaddress having been stamped with rubber type. In one corner of theenvelope had been pasted a tin
y black star. On the polished surface ofthe desk other little black stars had been pasted. There was one alsoon a vase. There was another on the glass door of a bookcase.
"The Black Star!" Verbeck exclaimed.
He turned swiftly to scrutinize his prisoner, but there was noexpression on the man's face to denote that he showed interest, and hewas looking at the floor. Muggs was watching the bound thief closely,but his dancing eyes and parted lips showed that Verbeck's words hadinterested him deeply.
"So! We are honored by a visit from the Black Star, Muggs!" Verbecksaid. "Think of that! The cleverest crook the town ever had to worryover--the man who got the famous Smith diamonds and cracked a safeacross the street from police headquarters, who has lifted half thesilver in town and stripped society women of their jewels--and he haspaid us a visit. We must be getting important, Muggs--eh?"
"Yes, sir," said Muggs.
"Well, well! The man every one is looking for and cannot find, who hasbeen sending naughty notes to the police, telling them how dull theyare. I understand he even tips off what he intends doing, and thendoes it under their very noses. Very clever chap--for a crook! Declaresall the detectives in the world can't catch him! Um! Suppose we seewhat is in this letter."
He grinned at the prisoner and ripped the envelope open. In it was asingle sheet of paper. The letter, too, was printed, and its unevenlines showed that it had been stamped one letter at a time. It wassimilar in appearance to the letters the newspapers declared thepolice had received. Verbeck read it swiftly:
Mr. Roger Verbeck: Last night at a certain reception people were talking of the Black Star. You made the remark that the Black Star was not a crook, but a gang--that the police didn't catch him because they had so many cases on which to work that they couldn't give their undivided attention to any particular one. You declared that any clever man who applied himself to the task could capture the Black Star and break up his gang. You boasted that you could do it yourself, and easily.
To show you how useless it would be for you to pit your brains and skill against mine, I am putting this letter on your desk while you sleep in an adjoining room, and am leaving my sign on some of your belongings. I am even putting a black star in your bed within a foot of the spot where you rest your head while you are sleeping. After this exhibition, either admit that the Black Star is clever, or do as you boasted you could do--catch me.
"Read it, Muggs," said Verbeck, guarding the prisoner himself as Muggsobeyed. "What do you think of that, eh? Intended us to wake up andfind these things stuck all over the place! Trying to show us how veryclever he is, this naughty Black Star, and we catch him at it.There'll be joy at police headquarters over this. Now you just keepyour eyes on this gentleman, Muggs, while I get into my clothes, andthen we'll continue the entertainment."
Verbeck hurried to the dressing room, leaving Muggs on guard, anddressed as swiftly as possible. He carried a topcoat and cap to achair near the door of the bedroom, and then he hurried over to thebed.
The Black Star had done as he had said. On the head of the bed was oneof the little signs, and whoever had placed it there had put his handwithin six inches of Verbeck's head. The man in the other room,Verbeck decided, had done that first, then gone into the library tofinish his work.
Verbeck hurried back and relieved Muggs.
"Go and get into your clothes," he ordered, "and then hurry back here.I'll try to entertain our guest while you are gone."
He drew up a chair and sat down, facing the prisoner, and less thansix feet away. He was humming a tune, and there was a smile playingabout his lips. Had the prisoner been well acquainted with RogerVerbeck that smile would have put him on guard.
Verbeck already had formed a plan. He and Muggs understood each otherwell, thanks to sundry adventures in which they had participated inthe four corners of the earth, and he knew that Muggs even now wasreading the note he had scrawled hurriedly and left on the dressingtable, and would act accordingly.
"The Black Star--well, well!" he exclaimed, grinning at his prisoneragain. "And so you are the clever crook?"
"I'm not saying anything!"
"You decorated the head of my bed with that thing, I suppose?"
"You can suppose all you like."
"Thanks! Rather surly, aren't you?"
"You hand me over to the police, and you'll get yours!" said theprisoner.
"Are you, by any chance, trying to frighten me?"
"I'm giving you fair warning. You hand me over and you won't live longto gloat about it!"
Roger Verbeck grinned again and resumed his humming. His eyes neverleft the prisoner, but he was thinking deeply. In the first place, theletter from the Black Star bothered him. The remarks that the BlackStar accused him of making he had made. But the puzzling part of itwas that he had made them to half a dozen friends when there was nostranger near. He had spoken them in a drawing-room in the presence ofFaustina Wendell, his fiancee; Howard Wendell, her brother, and someothers concerning whose integrity there was no question. How, then,had the Black Star heard of them?
The Black Star had terrorized the city for the past four months.Whenever a master crime was committed a tiny black star had been foundpasted on something at the scene of operations. The police had beenunable to get a clew. Each crime seemed bolder and more daring thanthe one before, and more highly successful. The Black Star senttaunting letters to the newspapers and police, and the public demandedhis arrest and imprisonment with loud voice.
His crimes, too, showed a deep knowledge of private matters. Itappeared that the Black Star knew the interior arrangements ofresidences he robbed. Sometimes he even knew the combinations ofsafes--for in two instances a safe had been opened and looted, and thenproperly closed again, but with a tiny black star inside it. He wasaware when valuable jewels were taken from safe-deposit boxes to beworn at some affair; he knew when members of families were out of thecity, or servants absent. He had shown in a thousand ways that hepossessed knowledge of great value to a criminal.
Roger Verbeck's boast had not been an idle one. He believed sincerelythat no crook could be so clever but what some honest man could matchwits with him and win. He believed, too, that the Black Star did notwork alone, but was the leader of a band. Not for an instant didVerbeck think the man he had taken prisoner was the notorious BlackStar, but it pleased him to let the prisoner believe he did.
His first impulse had been to call the police and hand the man over.But he guessed that such a course would not insure the capture of themaster crook, and that the prisoner would refuse to talk, take asentence for burglary, and thus allow the Black Star and the others togo free.
It would be clever, Verbeck decided, to allow this man to escape, toshadow him, and to learn more. Roger Verbeck had adventured with Muggsscores of times, and he yearned for an adventure now. Here was hischance. Besides, the Black Star had issued the challenge.
Muggs returned fully dressed. For an instant the eyes of master andman met, and there flashed between them an understanding.
"Better look at this chap's bonds, Muggs," Verbeck said. "We don'twant him escaping before the police come."
Muggs bent behind the prisoner's chair and fumbled with the cord, andwhen he arose his eyes met those of Verbeck again, and Verbeck knewthat Muggs had obeyed orders.
"Now go down and call the house manager," he directed, "and I'lltelephone the police."
Muggs hurried out into the hall. Verbeck left his chair and steppedback to the door of the bedroom.
"I fancy you'll be secure for a moment or so," he told the prisoner."You'll scarcely get away unless you carry that chair with you."
He backed through the curtains, grasped his topcoat and cap, andcrossed the room on his toes and unlocked the hall door. To cover thesound of the key turning in the lock, he spoke as if calling a numberon the telephone.
"Hello! Police headquarters?" he asked. "This is Roger Verbeckspeaking. Hurry up here! I've just caught the Black Star trying toloot my rooms. My
old address--yes!"
And while he spoke he opened the door, so that his voice would drownany squeak the hinges might give; and then he slipped into the halland hurried to the front stairs. He dashed down the three flights foursteps at a time.
The prisoner had tugged desperately at his bonds and had felt themgive. With sudden hope, he had worked furiously to get free. He wasthrough the window and descending the fire escape as Verbeck finishedthe imaginary telephone message to the police, exulting at what hefondly thought had been his close escape.