"He's here!" came a voice from the darkness.
"This is the Black Star!"
"Well, what do you want? Are you and your men ready to surrender to us? We'll get you, and get you good, if you don't!"
"Surrender?" the Black Star said. "When I hold the advantage?"
"I don't see it!" the chief shouted.
"No? My dear chief, there are in this house the most prominent persons in your fair city. We have with us, also, two diplomats of international fame. I abhor violence, but in such a case as this, it becomes necessary. You will withdraw your men. You will take them to the corner, beneath the electric light, where we can see them plainly. You will keep them there fifteen minutes, and after that you may do as you please."
"I see myself!" the chief cried.
"If you do not, I shall use violence upon those in the house. For every ten minutes we are forced to remain here, I shall take a human life. For every one of my men wounded or slain, I shall take another human life. Think it over, chief!"
The chief did think it over, with Roger Verbeck to aid him. The Black Star was at the end of his rope. Captured again, he was certain to be convicted and sentenced to prison for life. He was the sort who would go out fighting—the sort to do all the harm he could before he went out.
"We're not sure that it's not a bluff!" Verbeck said. "But we can't do as he asks, of course."