All the telephones were busy now. The pungent odor that had come from the vapor bombs had blown out of the room. Word was being flashed over the city that the Black Star had been rescued by his band, and that he had promised a wave of crime to pay for his incarceration.
Nobody doubted that such would be the case. The city knew well that the Black Star always made good his boasts. Nobody doubted that his organization was greater than it had been before, and that clever plans had been made.
The Black Star, they had reason to suppose, would not wait very long before striking, for that was not his nature. The city faced the great question:
Where would the Black Star strike first?
CHAPTER III
THE NEW HEADQUARTERS
Roger Verbeck was the last of his family, a man who moved in the best social circles, who had wealth and good looks and friends, and an athletic body.
It had been Roger Verbeck who had put the Black Star behind prison bars. When the supercriminal first began his work in the city, the police seemed to be unable to do anything against him. Verbeck had made a boast at a reception one night that he could capture the Black Star himself. That boast had led to many adventures.