“Well, I’ve got you, all right!” the individual growled in a hoarse voice. “Pretty good pickin’ around these diggin’s, too. Notice the swag I’ve got here on the table?”
He bent forward and tore the gag from the Black Star’s mouth.
“Talk, if you want to,” he offered. “Black Star, eh? Big crook, eh?”
“Who are you?” the Black Star asked.
“What do you care?”
“I am interested. Any man who can put me down and out—and I suppose you are the one who did it—interests me strangely. So you think I am the Black Star?”
“I know it.”
“I suppose you want to join my organization and are taking this melodramatic way to show me you are fitted?”
“Guess again!”
“Well, what is the idea, then? I suppose you realize what you are running up against when you tackle the Black Star?”