“Don’t beat me up yet—please,” sneered the Black Star. “If you stop to do that you’ll suffer considerable anguish later. I am not done—there are more chickens coming home to roost. What numbers did the men have, those to whom you gave orders?”
Fearing, Verbeck told him.
“So? Howard Wendell is one of them, Verbeck. He is the one who brought you the letter that first night concerning the Greistman jewels—remember? He’ll be one for the police to nab to-night. He must have been surprised to get orders like that—he understood he was to do nothing except gather information.”
Verbeck felt that the Black Star was speaking the truth. Howard had objected to the orders—had said that they were unfair to him, but that he was unable to help himself. It had been possible for him to tell the Black Star of Verbeck’s boast. He had given the sign that afternoon before seeking a talk with Freda Brakeland. And the police would capture Howard Wendell through Verbeck’s planning, capture him with stolen jewels in his possession.
“And the women?” the Black Star asked. “Tell me quickly! What numbers did they have?”
Verbeck told him.
“The first is one of the cleverest in the organization,” said the master crook. “She is an experienced thief. But the second—small wonder you did not find her number in the book! She is a new one. That was her first visit, and I had ordered it some days before. She was brought into the organization through her love for another, a member of her family. So she’ll be caught, too, eh? And do you know her identity, Roger Verbeck? Do you know the woman you are handing over to the police through meddling with my affairs? I’ll tell you—gladly: She is Miss Faustina Wendell—your fiancée!”
[CHAPTER X—CAUGHT IN A NET]
Silence followed the announcement of the Black Star—silence for a moment, during which Muggs watched his master and waited for the sign that he was to choke the man on the divan into insensibility for daring to say such a thing. But the sign was not given.
Suddenly Roger Verbeck felt sick at heart. The Black Star’s tone, his bearing, the expression in his face told that he spoke the truth. And Verbeck knew enough to confirm it. Faustina had been acting in a peculiar manner. And that second woman who had called on him in the Black Star’s headquarters—how timid she had appeared, how afraid! She had reeled when she read her orders. She had demanded to know where Verbeck got the ring he was wearing. And that very afternoon, when he met her at her home—her words had been mysterious, her actions out of the ordinary.