After a time, the little bell on the wall tinkled, and a robed and masked figure entered the room and went to the blackboard. Muggs glanced at him in disgust. The Black Star's men had been reporting continually during the day.
"Number Five," the man wrote.
"Countersign?" wrote the Black Star on his blackboard.
"Everglades."
"Report."
"There appears to be no suspicion as to what we really intend to do to-night. The police reserves are being held in waiting, and the sheriff has his deputies ready for action, but those seem to be all the arrangements that have been made."
"How about Verbeck?" the Black Star wrote.
"He is at police headquarters now, waiting for the alarm so he can take the trail."
"Good. That is all," the Black Star wrote.
The member of the band bowed and backed through the door. The Black Star wrote something in the memorandum book, closed it and put it into a drawer in the table. Then he turned toward Muggs again.