“They let him escape, I’m telling you! How, in the name of all that’s human, they could do it is more than I can guess! Don’t ask me—ask some of these boobs! For months we’ve been crazy to get this Black Star—we have him handcuffed and in the wagon—and he escapes! He’s been gone an hour or more. He’s probably ransacked the mayor’s house and blown up the vault of the First National Bank in that time, just to show his anger at being pinched. Ah-h!”
The chief sputtered his wrath again.
“Out!” he cried to his men. “Out—every man of you! Some of you saw that crook’s face—though I doubt if you can tell me now whether he’s got one eye or two. Out, and get him! Don’t come back until you do! Get out of here—and I’ll break the man who dares to report no progress! Out, fools!”
Glad to escape their superior’s wrath, the detectives scattered, and the uniformed men ascended the stairs to the room used by the reserves, there to discuss the latest event in lowered voices, for the chief’s command did not apply to the “harness bulls.”
The chief beckoned Verbeck and Muggs to follow him into his private office.
“It’s enough to drive a man insane!” he exploded, reaching for his box of cigars and passing it around.
“How did it happen?” Verbeck asked.
“Don’t ask me! The wagon stopped before the jail door as usual. We had the eight crooks and this Black Star. As they started to get out, two of the crooks bumped my men aside, two more tripped at the end of the wagon, the female crooks of the gang pretended to faint, and the Black Star made a dash for the alley. One of the fools took a shot at him and smashed a fourth-story window across the street. He made a clean get-away with the bracelets on him! Think of it! Right here at headquarters! They thought he was knocked out——”
“Probably he was shamming,” Verbeck observed in an emotionless voice.
“You’d think anybody’d watch out for that—but not these fine detectives of mine! And every newspaper in town knows we had our hands on the Black Star and let him go. They’ve been pestering the life out of me, and I tipped off the capture as soon as my men telephoned from the Charity Ball, where you handed the crook over, thinking the department would get a little credit. And now they’ll be worse on me than before. I’ll resign! I’m done! But I’ll break some of ’em first——”