“Maybe we could turn around and get back to our launch,” his man suggested.
“Fool! In the first place, we’d lose valuable time, and then, when we did come up the river, we’d have to clash with the police boat again. Also, my brainy friend, if our launch is where we left it, you may be sure there is a police guard there waiting for us to return. If you happen to have any brains, try to use them.”
The Black Star’s man gulped and kept silent.
“Go back to the cars and have all the men come here, bringing Muggs and Verbeck,” the master criminal ordered.
The man obeyed; within two minutes all were grouped around the Black Star, and the unconscious prisoners were on the ground at the foot of a tree. The Black Star explained their predicament.
“You chauffeurs, get back in the cars, turn on the lights, and drive on to the bridge,” he instructed. “When the police question you, simply say you have been out to that road house on the river bank earlier this evening—which will be true—and not finding fares there, or prospects of any, are on your way back to the city. Admit you heard firing back on the road, and saw men rushing through the trees. Say you didn’t stop because you were afraid of being held up—there have been several automobile holdups in that vicinity recently. And argue with the police as long as possible, while we do our part.”
The chauffeurs hurried away. They ran some risk, they knew. They might be put under arrest, but they had little fear of that. Both held licenses as public chauffeurs, and they had established the road-house alibi on the master criminal’s orders. And, if held, the Black Star would see that they were bailed out—and then they’d simply jump their bail.
“We’re going through that bridge and to the city, and we’re going in the police launch,” the Black Star told the others. “That’ll be rather rubbing it in, but the police deserve it. I’ll write a letter to the papers afterward, telling just how we did it. There is only one man in the launch. We must seize it and make a quick get-away. Run under the bridge and straight up the river. We’ll desert the police boat a short distance down the stream. I’ve arranged for two taxicabs to be there. I wasn’t exactly sure where it would be best to leave our own launch, and I always prepare for emergencies.”
He led the way through the brush on the bank of the river. They had but a short distance to go, and they were directly opposite the police boat and about a hundred feet from it when they heard the two automobiles run up on the bridge and stop at the command of a policeman.
The Black Star was a wise general; he did not send all his men forward at once. Had he done that, the engineer of the launch would have been suspicious and instantly sounded an alarm. The master criminal selected one man, and had him walk boldly through the brush and down to the launch. In the semidarkness the engineer of the launch would believe him to be one of the plain-clothes men returning with orders.