“Let’s take ’em. It won’t hurt, and may do a great deal of good. We’ll have the sergeant leave one man here to take any telephone message that comes.”
Riley ran to the door and blew his whistle. Verbeck and Muggs already were at work. Before Riley could instruct the sergeant that a man be detailed to remain at the house while the others followed, Verbeck and Muggs had pulled the heavy table to one side—to find the wire passing through a tiny hole in the floor and into the basement.
Verbeck led the way below. The wire was picked up easily, running to an outside wall and through it. On the outside it went up the side of the house, beside a water pipe, thence to a tree near by.
“Follow the wire—and be quick about it!” Riley commanded the sergeant and his men. The police knew only that this had something to do with the pursuit of the Black Star, but the excitement of Verbeck and his companions was infectious, and they went at their work eagerly, sensing that seconds were precious.
Electric torches flashed as they surrounded the tree, and one man prepared to climb.
“There it runs!” Riley shouted. “Flash your lights! See it? To the other tree!”
Thus they crossed the yard to a corner, going from tree to tree, flashing their lamps always on that slim, long-hanging wire.
“Whoever heard of a dictograph wire this long!” Riley exclaimed. “Nobody but the Black Star would use it. No telling where it runs—and we haven’t a great deal of time! Send back another man, sergeant, to stand by the house and bring us news if there’s a telephone call. Send one who can drive Verbeck’s roadster to us!”
A man was selected and sent, and the tracing of the wire went on. They came to the corner, and there the wire sprang from a tree to a telephone pole, and across the street to another pole, then to an unimproved block of land, where it ran from tree to tree as before.
Led by Verbeck and Riley, with Muggs at their heels, the police waded through snowdrifts, crashed through wet underbrush, rending the black night with the light of their torches. The wire twisted from tree to tree, never more than a few feet above the ground.