The Black Star: A Detective Story

by Johnston McCulley

  CHAPTER II--THE BLACK STAR

  Verbeck found Muggs at the corner of the apartment house, standing inthe shadows and trying to shield himself from the stinging sleet andbiting cold wind.

  "He's just reaching the ground, boss," Muggs said. "See him?"

  "I see him. Be careful now, Muggs; we don't want to lose him. Thanksfor understanding and loosening his bonds. There he goes!"

  The erstwhile prisoner had reached the ground and was darting throughthe shadows toward the alley. Down this he ran for half a block, thencrept between two buildings, and so reached the boulevard near acorner, with Verbeck and Muggs a hundred feet behind him. It wasdifficult trailing the man through a storm of sleet and fine snow, butVerbeck and Muggs had trailed men before, sometimes for amusement, andat other times through necessity.

  The man hesitated at the curb a moment, then struck across thedriveway. Verbeck and Muggs followed. They took opposite sides of thewalk and slipped along over the frozen ground, darting from shadow toshadow, always watching the elusive shadow ahead. At the streetcrossings their quarry walked across boldly, and they could not followinstantly for fear of being detected, but they always picked up theirman again, once they were across.

  Thus they covered a dozen blocks, and it appeared that the midnightprowler considered himself safe now. He hurried down a cross street,his head bent forward against the cold wind that swept up the hill.Block after block Muggs trailed him, while Verbeck shadowed from theother side of the street, dodging into dark doorways now and then whenhe expected his man to look behind.

  The quarry stopped at a corner, lighted a cigar, and stood waiting.Muggs was concealed in a doorway fifty feet behind him; Verbeck was inanother doorway across the street.

  An owl car came along, and their quarry boarded it. But Verbeck hadbeen expecting that, and for some time had been watching a taxicabstanding before a drug store on the corner. As the owl car started upagain, Verbeck dashed across the street, and he had the chauffeur outof the drug store and into the seat before Muggs reached the spot.

  "Follow that owl car," Verbeck directed. "There's a man on it thatwe'd like to see when he gets off."

  "I'm wise," the chauffeur cried. "Fly cops, eh? Get in!"

  The cab lurched along the slippery street, keeping half a block behindthe owl car. Whenever the car stopped, the cab drew up at the curb,and Verbeck put out his head to watch. But their quarry remainedaboard.

  "If this keeps up we'll clear out of town," said Muggs.

  "Anxious for action?" Verbeck asked, laughing. "You may get plenty ofit before we are done. Have a bit of patience, Muggs."

  "I've got patience, all right, boss--and I've got a hunch, too."

  "Let's have it!" At times Verbeck had a great deal of respect forMuggs' hunches.

  "I've got a hunch we'd have done better if we'd handed that gent overto the police."

  "I gave you credit for understanding the situation, Muggs."

  "Oh, I understand what you want to do, all right. It'd be great toclean up this Black Star and his gang single-handed, hog tie 'em all,then call in the cops and hand 'em over--especially since he sent youthat sassy note--but I've got a hunch we're going up against a stiffgame. This Black Star ain't no slouch!"

  "Afraid?" snarled Verbeck.

  That touched Muggs on a tender spot, and Verbeck knew it. Muggs turneddeliberately and faced his employer.

  "If that's the way you're looking at it, boss," he said, "trot rightalong and I'll be behind you. Go the limit, and I'm in the first seaton the right-hand side. But, all the same, I've got a hunch."

  The taxicab stopped again. Verbeck put his head from the window andimmediately opened the door. Their quarry had left the owl car and wasstarting down the dark cross street.

  Giving a bill to the chauffeur and telling him he need not wait,Verbeck hurried to the corner, with Muggs at his heels. Shadowing herewas difficult work, for there was unimproved property, and some oldestates not well kept up, where sidewalks were bad and the footinguncertain, and where untrimmed trees and thick underbrush furnishedmultitudes of dark spots.

  Uphill and downhill, always against the biting cold wind and sleet,their man led them. Finally he crossed a vacant lot and made directlyfor an old house far back from the street in the midst of a grove oftrees that now were swaying and snapping in the storm.

  "So that's where the Black Star lives!" Verbeck said.

  He and Muggs had small difficulty following their man now, for therewas a low hedge behind which, by stooping, they could make their wayunseen. Their man reached the side of the house and went along ituntil he came to a door. Beside the door there was a box on theground. As Verbeck and Muggs watched, the man they had been followingraised the lid of the box and took something out.

  "He's putting on clothes," Muggs whispered.

  His actions could not be observed well, but it did appear that he wasdonning an overcoat or a robe of some sort.

  "And he's putting on a mask," said Muggs. "What's coming off here?"

  "I imagine we are in for an interesting time," answered Verbeck."Watch him now!"

  He had stepped up to the door, and they could see him put out hishand. Through a lull in the storm there came to Verbeck and Muggs thetinkling of a bell, then a sharp click, and the door flew open andtheir quarry disappeared inside, closing the door after him.

  Verbeck and Muggs hurried around the end of the hedge and to thehouse. A few feet from the door was a window. Verbeck had no more thanglanced at it before Muggs was at work. Verbeck never had inquired tooclosely into Muggs' past, but from what he had seen from time to time,he had reason to believe that Muggs knew a thing or two about crooks'methods, and now he had more evidence of it. In an instant almostMuggs was sliding that window up slowly, inch by inch, making nonoise, and carefully pulling aside the curtains behind it.

  Another moment, and Verbeck was standing inside the house, with Muggsbeside him. They heard no voices. Step by step they made their wayacross the room to the opposite wall, searching for a door.

  Then they saw a streak of light that penetrated from an adjoiningroom, where a door sagged in its casement, leaving a crack throughwhich a man could see. Verbeck knew this house. For several years ithad been deserted, not kept in repair, the grounds not kept up. Itbelonged to an estate in litigation, and could not be sold, and theheirs had refused to build a more substantial residence for the rentalit might bring in. He was surprised to find it inhabited, and heimagined that the Black Star and his band were making use of itsurreptitiously.

  But when he applied his eye to the crack in the door, expecting to seea room almost barren, filled with dust and cobwebs, two or threeboxes, some burning candles--a typical resort of thugs--he faced asurprise. He was looking into a room that had been newly decorated andwas furnished lavishly. Expensive rugs were on the floor; picturesadorned the walls. There was a massive library table in the center ofthe room, an armchair beside it, books and papers and magazines on it.

  On one wall of the room was a small blackboard, with chalk and aneraser in a box beneath it. Before this blackboard, standing erect,was their quarry--dressed in a long black robe that covered everyportion of his body, even his head being enveloped in a hood, and overhis face a black mask.

  There was no one else in the room. The man before the blackboard stoodstiffly and silently, like a soldier at attention. Behind the door,Verbeck and Muggs waited, scarcely daring to breathe.

  Then a door on the other side of the lavishly furnished room wasthrown open, and another man came into view. He, too, was dressed in along black robe, and had a black mask over his face. But he had a markthat distinguished him from the other, for on the front of his hoodwas a black star, formed of jet, that flashed in the light.