Black Star's Campaign/Chapter 16
CHAPTER XVI
HOT BREAD
FAR downtown, the five fishermen passed through the storeroom and entered another hall. They walked through this to the end, making not the slightest noise. Each man held a vapor gun in his hand and was prepared to use it if occasion demanded.
At the end of the hall, another door was opened with a duplicate key one of the men took from his pocket. The five crept through, and closed the door again.
"Two men on each floor, and one in the diamond room," the leader whispered. "Make sure that we get them all."
The band scattered. Two remained on the lower floor, two started to the floor above, and one made his way toward the diamond room in the rear. Dim lights were burning here and there, and the men moved from shadow to shadow, noiselessly alert.
On the lower floor, the two watchmen were eating their night luncheon. They sat close together, talking in low tones. A light was burning above the table upon which they had put their lunch boxes, but the spot could not be seen from the street through the windows.
The Black Star's two men advanced carefully. One of them made a sign, transferred the vapor gun to his left hand, and took a bomb out of his pocket. He hurled it behind the two watchmen.
They sprang to their feet, gasped, dropped. The two members of the Black Star's band turned away and darted to the foot of the stairs, ready to help their companions if help should be needed.
On the second floor, the two watchmen were found separated and rendered unconscious immediately. The man who had gone toward the diamond room stopped just outside the door and peered in. The watchman inside evidently feared no interruption. He was sitting with his back to the open door, reading a newspaper.
A shot from the vapor pistol, and he was unconscious. Three of the other four men hurried into the room. The other remained below, on guard at the end of the hall through which they had entered.
Tools were taken from pockets, and work began on the door of the vault. Two of the band were experienced workmen in whom the Black Star took pride. They worked swiftly, yet thoroughly. They knew that opening the vault would take some time.
On the lower floor the two watchmen remained stretched on the carpet. Presently, one of them opened his eyes, then raised his head and looked around carefully.
It happened that he had inhaled very little of the vapor from the bomb. As he fell he had tottered to one side, and the draft from the nearest ventilator had carried the fumes away from him. He was a man who had read all the newspapers ever had printed concerning the Black Star's methods, and he guessed immediately what had occurred.
He did not know with how many men he had to contend. He supposed they were raiding the diamond room, and that there were guards posted, but could not be sure. He listened intently, glanced around again. He saw nobody, heard nothing except a slight sound that came from the diamond room, the rasping of tools against steel.
The watchman had been long in the service of the firm, and was a trusted man. But he also was an old man, and not very strong. He was not the sort to combat the Black Star's band single-handed, though he had a revolver in his pocket.
But he was the sort who would take a chance to give an alarm. He glanced at his unconscious companion, looked around the room again, and started crawling slowly over the floor, a foot at a time.
He came to the first aisle, and looked down it. There was nobody in sight. He crept along the counters, behind them, stopping now and then to listen. He was not making fast progress, but he was afraid to risk everything in the interests of speed.
Finally he reached the end of the counter, and once more he looked around and listened. He could still hear the slight noise in the diamond room, but that was all. He had an open space of twenty feet to cross now, and he proceeded faster, and finally reached the door of a private office.
He raised himself, opened the door noiselessly and entered. Then he sprang to his feet, locked the door, and darted to the telephone on the desk.
He had expected to find the telephone useless, and was gratified that such was not the case. Once more he paused to listen, and then lifted the receiver from the hook, and put his lips close to the transmitter.
"Number?" asked the girl at central.
"Police headquarters—quick!"
It seemed to him that he waited an eternity before the voice of the desk sergeant came to him over the wire.
"Robbery!" he gasped. "Black Star's men!"
"Where, man—where?" demanded the sergeant.
The watchman gave the address.
"This is one of the watchmen," he added. "The gas bomb didn't put me out, and I managed to crawl to the office. Hurry—hurry! They are in the diamond room now—I don't know how many of them! But hurry!"
Then the old watchman sank into the chair before the desk, weak and trembling. He had done his part, and he could not do more. He took out his revolver, and tried to decide whether he should attack them. It would be better, he thought, to wait until the police came—they would not be long.
Up in the diamond room the Black Star's men had opened the vault door, finally. They reached for three certain trays, and swept the diamonds from them. They had orders what to get and what to leave—the master rogue wanted only some stones recently received, one hundred superior stones upon which a high valuation had been placed by experts.
With the gems in their pockets, they left the diamond room and closed the door behind them. They started down the hall to meet the men who had remained on guard.
And suddenly they heard police sirens shrieking, and the front of the establishment was bathed in light.
"The cops are on us!" one of them gasped.
"We needn't worry if we can get through the basement wall and into the bakeshop. But we'll have to hurry," another replied, rushing along the hall.
They darted down the stairs, closing and locking all the doors as they went, for they did not want the police to guess the manner of their entrance. The Black Star might have need of the baker in some other enterprise.
They came to the wall and tapped upon it. The baker swung the little door open, and they stepped into the shop.
"Cops all around the place!" he reported. "Must have been tipped off in some way. Where are the stones?"
"Here!" one replied, and tumbled them on the table.
Before the baker was a pan of dough. He worked swiftly, forming it into light biscuits—and into each biscuit he put diamonds. He put the biscuits into a pan, greased the tops of them, put the pan into one of the ovens.
"Two bottles of beer there—open them!" he ordered in a whisper.
One of the five fishermen obeyed. They poured the liquor out, drank a part of it, put their glasses down upon the table.
There was bedlam in the streets now. The police had surrounded the block. They were battering at doors, and the old watchman was letting them in at the front entrance. A crowd already had started to gather.
"Tight hole!" one of the fishermen said.
"Not unless you lose your nerve!" the baker answered. "Beginning to get scared?"
"I guess I've got as much nerve as the next man!"
"Then show it!" the baker said. "Make a wrong plan, and all of us will be in trouble. They are sure to come in here in a minute or two."
Verbeck and Muggs had entered the establishment with the chief. The old watchman told his story in a few words. Lights were turned on, and the place searched, and the unconscious men found. Then Verbeck hurried to the diamond room, with the others at his heels.
The door of the vault was open. Empty trays were on the floor; and at the bottom of the vault was a sheet of white paper, upon which had been pasted a row of little black stars.
"Looted!" the chief gasped. "But where can they be?"
"Gone before we got here!" Muggs said.
"The watchman says he heard them just as we came up. There are only two exits to the ground floor—the front door and the rear one—and no windows in the back large enough to permit a man to pass through."
"And the back door is bolted on the inside—I investigated it," Verbeck said.
"Then, where have they gone?" the chief cried. "This thing is getting on my nerves! But we've got the block surrounded, and every man inside the lines will give an account of himself."
The search of the block began, and it was a methodical and thorough one. Building by building, room by room it went on, while the crowds gathered outside. The chief took up his station on a corner and received reports that were highly discouraging. It appeared that the master criminal's men had disappeared into thin air, or else had left the place before the police arrived.
Verbeck and Muggs conducted an investigation of their own, but found nothing to help them.
"This gets my goat, boss!" Muggs said. "I think it's a hoodoo to work with the cops."
"I'm beginning to think that myself, Muggs," Verbeck replied. "The Black Star tricks the police, and when we are with them we get tricked, too. Beginning with to-morrow, Muggs, you and I tackle the job on an independent basis."
"That's great, boss! And we'll get that big crook, too!"
"We'll get him!" Verbeck promised.
"And when we do, you turn your back for about five minutes, and let me handle him," Muggs begged. "I want to give him the sore throat, and give it to him bad!"
"Maybe you'll get the chance," Verbeck said.
Down in the bakeshop the five fishermen were making merry around the table. Upon them entered half a dozen policemen, a captain at their head.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" the officer demanded, looking at them suspiciously.
The five fishermen showed alarm in their faces. The baker rushed forward.
"Why, they're friends of mine, captain," he said. "They're fishermen, and come up from the wharf now and then at night to have a little drink of beer with me. I've known them for years."
"What are your names, and where do you live and work?" the captain asked.
They were ready with that information. They had prepared it in advance; and, if their answers were investigated, they would stand the test.
"Well, maybe you're all right, but we can't afford to take any chances," the captain said. "The Black Star's gang has made a haul in the jewelry house on the other side of the block, and we're taking a good look at every man around here. You'll have to stand a search, or be taken in!"
The five fishermen announced that they were willing to be searched. The search was carried out immediately. From their pockets were taken knives, bits of twine, chewing tobacco, soiled handkerchiefs—things one would expect to find in the pockets of such men. They had, of course, hidden their vapor guns and their drilling tools in a safe place under the cellar flagstones before the police came upon them.
"Well, what are you hanging around here to-night for?" the captain demanded.
"They just came up to have a little drink with me, and to get some fresh bread," the baker explained. "They are waiting for it now—fresh-bread and light biscuits. Jim, there, is a fiend for my light biscuits."
As he finished speaking, the baker turned to his oven and opened the door. A delicious aroma streamed forth, and the men sniffed. Bread and biscuits were tumbled out, and the baker started wrapping them up.
"What did that gang get in the jewelry store?" he asked the captain.
"Don't know exactly—diamonds, I suppose. You men get your stuff and get out of here. I guess you're all right. How are you going to get home?"
"We've got a launch down at the wharf," one of them replied. "She ain't much to look at, and ain't any race horse, but she does manage to get through the water a bit. Good enough for our business, I reckon."
"Get your stuff and come along. I'll see you through the lines," the captain told them. "We'll have to search your shop, baker. I'll leave a couple of men to do that."
"All right. But I ain't in the diamond business," the baker said, grinning.
The captain opened the door and motioned for the five fishermen to pass him. He conducted them to the street and across it, and passed them through the lines. They went on toward the waterfront, talking loudly, swaggering and staggering a bit, jesting, and now and then singing a snatch of song.
Four of them carried a loaf of bread each. The fifth man carried a dozen light biscuits beneath his arm.
And in those biscuits was a fortune in diamonds!