“I didn’t—really—mistrust you,” she said. “But it—it looked so peculiar. And so we came here to-night—but we talked it over first, and decided we’d not steal. I couldn’t do it, dear, and neither could Howard. And you must not blame Howard too much about that check. He was young, thoughtless—it has been a great lesson to him. They really stole the money from him, and he got it back from them. We intended going to the corner—at midnight—no matter what happened. We expected the worst—but we couldn’t steal.”
“My girl!” Verbeck breathed.
There was more commotion in the lobby. Some of the dancers were walking in that direction, and Verbeck led Faustina there, with Howard on her other side, in a manner as natural as possible.
The Black Star’s men and the woman wore handcuffs. Detectives were taking jewels from them, gems they had stolen in the last hour or so. One of the men already was cursing the Black Star aloud, swearing that the Black Star had betrayed them and declaring he would tell everything he knew. Verbeck was thankful he had gone to the house and destroyed the letters.
“There were to be eight men and two women,” he heard a captain say. “We’re one man and one woman shy.”
“I saw another woman with the red ribbon on,” spoke up one of the detectives. “Maybe I’d recognize her if I saw her again.”
“We’ll have all the exits guarded, and you can look——”
Verbeck whirled to Faustina.
“We’ve got to get out of this quick!” he said. “That man may have seen you, may recognize you. If we get out now we are safe, for if he saw you on the street afterward in different clothes he’d never recognize you. And nobody would suspect Faustina Wendell. But right now it would be dangerous for him to see you.”
“What can we do?” Howard asked in sudden alarm.