"One minute, Muggs! We haven't time for a demonstration of affection at present. Well, chief, he had me nabbed, and I've seen the inside of his new headquarters."
"I haven't the slightest idea. I was in an inside room--unconscious when taken there, and unconscious when they brought me away. I came back to life up in the park, where they had dropped me, got a taxi and hurried here. I suppose we have it all to do over again. We've got to catch that fiend, of course!"
"Will you help, Verbeck?" the chief cried. "Will you take the time and trouble?"
"You know it! Why, the Black Star challenged me again--said I couldn't catch him."
"You're in command, Verbeck, as you were the other time. Any orders now? Where shall we start in?"
"Throw out the dragnet and pick up what you can. Can't tell--might get a clew of some sort, you know. Get the rental agencies----"
"It probably will do no good, but it won't hurt any to try. The Black Star is too smooth to be caught in that way. His headquarters probably is in some house one of his band has owned and occupied for years."
"He just called up," Muggs put in. "He said we'd be busy within twenty-four hours."
"And the Black Star, as we know well, always keeps his word!" Roger Verbeck declared. "So his message probably means that he will strike his first blow to-morrow night--or, rather, to-night. But where? And what? Those are the questions."
"Is to wait until he strikes, and then take up the trail," Roger Verbeck added. "I found out one thing--he has some new people in his organization. He is using the blackboards again."
"Each member of the band has a number and a countersign. Each enters the headquarters room robed and masked, and carries on the conversation by means of the blackboards. The Black Star issues his orders the same way. He handles them by number, and in his other organization the numbers were issued by one of his lieutenants."
"What's the use of all that?" the chief asked.
"It is very simple, chief. The Black Star may know what Number Eight or Number Ten does, but he doesn't know the identities of the persons with those numbers. He never could go on the witness stand and swear that a certain member of his band did a certain share of the work. Understand? It is a protection all around. On the other hand, the men could not swear that the Black Star issued the orders--it might be somebody else wearing the master crook's robe and mask. See?"