Detective Riley, then?
[CHAPTER XX—THE VOICE ON THE WIRE]
At seven o’clock Verbeck ordered Muggs to bed, promising to call him with Riley at ten o’clock. He had kept the morning papers from Muggs, for he had decided to announce the failure of their contemplated trap when both men were facing him.
When snores from the adjoining room told him that Muggs was in a heavy sleep, Verbeck decided to make a tour of the house by himself in an effort to solve the mysteries that had been puzzling him. Automatic held ready, he crept softly up the stairs and examined every room on the second floor, looking at every window and door, but failing to find as much as a track in the dust.
He mounted to the garret once more and peered into the two half-finished rooms there. Then he returned to the first floor and sat down before the table in the living room, trying to think it out. He asked himself again whether Muggs had really put those black stars on the bread and had wounded himself in an effort to make Verbeck believe he had been attacked. What would be the motive? Verbeck shook his head because he could think of none. And had Riley betrayed their contemplated trap? Again he asked himself the motive, and told himself there was none, unless Detective Riley was a member of the Black Star’s band and acting under the orders of the master criminal.
He paced the floor, and occasionally went on the veranda, fighting down the belief that either of the men had turned against him, calling upon himself to have faith in them.
Ten o’clock came, and he awoke Riley and Muggs and prepared coffee while they dressed. He put the coffee on the table, with butter and rolls, and scattered the newspapers around. Then, as the two men began eating, he walked to the nearest window and stood looking out over the snow-covered lawn.
Presently there was an exclamation behind him, and he whirled around, to find both Muggs and Riley staring at newspapers as if they could not believe their eyes. Verbeck decided that either they were genuinely surprised, or were good actors.
“Yes,” he said before either of the others could speak, “the Black Star knows. It will not be necessary for me to go into town and make arrangements with the jewelers and the chief.”
“But——” Riley began, and stopped and looked at the paper again.