CHAPTER V
TRAILED
THE morning newspapers had some very uncomplimentary things to say, both in the news columns and on the editorial page, concerning Sheriff Kowen.
The sheriff, who had had less than three hours' sleep, raged when he read, and tore the papers into shreds.
"That's right—blame me!" he shrieked. "Blame a man who was trying to do his duty! If I don't raid gambling houses, I get blamed, and if I do raid 'em, I get blamed again. How did I know that place was a plant? It was a gambling house, wasn't it?"
Since the sheriff was a bachelor, there was nobody in his apartment to enjoy this tirade. He went to his favorite restaurant for breakfast, and sat at a table far back in one corner, refusing to hold conversation with anybody who approached.
The sheriff was gathering anger. He did not intend to let Roger Verbeck and the police get all the credit when the master crook was caught again. He would go after the Black Star himself, he decided—swear in more deputies and call upon his men to win. There were certain political reasons for this. Moreover, the sheriff was a conscientious man; since the Black Star had escaped through his work, it was his duty, he felt, to recapture him.
Sheriff Kowen left the restaurant and walked toward the county jail, where he maintained his office. He passed countless persons he knew, both men and women, and saw many smiles that possessed a quality the sheriff did not relish. But he refused to take a taxicab—he would show the public that he was not in hiding!
"If I ever meet that Blanchard woman again" the sheriff told himself; and just then he saw her.
She was on the walk a few feet ahead of him, going slowly toward a department store. Sheriff Kowen hurried up to her, touched her on the arm.
"I want to talk to you!" he said gruffly.
"Oh, good morning, sheriff!" she said, and smiled.
The sheriff was disconcerted for an instant, but composure returned to him quickly.
"We are only a block from the jail, and my office," he said. "I want to talk to you there. Shall we walk, or shall I call a cab and charge it to the county?"
There was a certain meaning to the last sentence, but she did not seem to realize it.
"I should be charmed to talk to you," she said, "but I have some shopping to do this morning."
"Your shopping will have to wait, young woman. This is a serious business."
"Why, what can you mean?" she asked.
"Either you walk along with me to my office, or you go as a prisoner!"
"Are you insane? Arrest me?"
"In a minute!" said Sheriff Kowen.
"I—I don't understand this—but I'll go along with you," said Mamie Blanchard.
"I thought you would," the sheriff returned.
He said nothing more as they walked down the street. He took her into his private office and offered her a chair at one end of his desk. He closed the door, telling the stenographer that he was not to be disturbed for the present.
"Now kindly tell me the meaning of this," said Mamie Blanchard. "I—you almost frightened me!"
"What do you know about the Black Star?" Kowen asked.
"Why, I read this morning that he escaped from your jail last night. You should be more careful."
Sheriff Kowen's face turned purple with wrath, but he controlled himself and bent toward her across the desk.
"And the cell he formerly occupied is now empty," he said. "Are you anxious to inhabit it for a time?"
"What do you mean, sir?" asked Mamie Blanchard.
"You tipped me off about that gambling house. It was nothing more or less than a trap whereby the Black Star could get a gang of his men into the jail and free him. You know it, and I know it, and it won't do you any good to try to bluff me!"
"Why, how dare you? How perfectly silly!"
"Silly, is it?"
"I never heard of such a thing! This affair must have turned your brain! I came in here yesterday merely to ask you if you required the services of a woman detective. I always have wanted to take up detective work, you know. You told me you did not, and so I left."
"What sort of nonsense is this?" the sheriff cried.
"Nonsense? Oh, I am sorry now that there was nobody else in the office to hear me!" And Miss Mamie Blanchard sat back and smiled at the official on the other side of the desk.
"So that's the way of it!" Kowen said. "You'll stick to that story, will you, because nobody else heard what you said yesterday? Woman detective! You know what you came in here for yesterday—to carry out the orders of the Black Star, help frame up that gambling-house deal"
"Really, I do not care to listen to any more such talk!" Mamie Blanchard told him. "I am living with my mother at a respectable private hotel"
"And your brother, the one who was going to the dogs?"
"Oh, I have no brother! You must be mistaken, sir!"
"You told me yesterday"
"Really, you are mistaken. You are confusing my conversation with that of some other person, surely. Brother? Oh, no, sir!"
Sheriff Kowen stared at her. "You are a wonder," he said, "but I am afraid that you can't get away with it. The best thing for you will be tell me all you know about the Black Star, where his headquarters are located, and what he has planned to do. Do that—and do it right—and I may forget all about what happened yesterday."
"But I do not understand you! How should I know anything about that notorious criminal."
"Want me to throw you into that empty cell?"
"You dare!" she said, indignantly. "My people have money, sir, and I can promise you a damage suit that will give you food for thought! Are you not ridiculous enough in the eyes of the public already?"
Sheriff Kowen's face purpled again as he glared at her. He did not doubt, knowing the past history of the Black Star's organization, that this Blanchard woman would cause him trouble.
"Well, I'm going to let you get away with it for the time being," he said. "But don't think for a minute that you're fooling me! You are a member of the Black Star's gang, and I know it! When we land him and the others, we'll land you, too! And you'll get a nice, long sentence from the court!"
Mamie Blanchard stood up. "I do not care to be insulted further!" she said. "I regret that there are no witnesses. If you annoy me any more, I shall bring the matter to my lawyer's attention."
"I suppose he belongs to the gang also," said the sheriff.
He got up, too, but before he did, he touched a button beneath his desk. It caused a buzzer to sound in another office. This told the deputy there that the person leaving the sheriff's private room was to be shadowed.
Kowen opened the door and bowed his visitor out. She held her head high, and there was an expression of indignation in her face. The sheriff watched her disappear into the hall, and then reached for his hat.
On second thought, Kowen had decided to shadow Mamie Blanchard himself, assisting his deputy. He gave Miss Blanchard time to reach the street, and then he started. She was already half a block away, making for the nearest department store, and Kowen saw his faithful deputy trailing her.
Mamie Blanchard, under the eyes of the sheriff and deputy, entered the store and began making purchases in an ordinary manner. Kowen approached the deputy and engaged him in low conversation.
"That's the girl that tipped me off about the gambling house," he said, "and I know blamed well that she belongs to the Black Star's gang. I tried to get some information out of her just now, but she's pretty wise. We'll keep out of her sight, work independently, and trail her. She may lead us to the big crook's headquarters."
Mamie Blanchard made purchases at several departments, and then left the store. If she was aware that she was under surveillance, she did not betray it by her actions. She visited a soda fountain and ate ice cream, emerged again, and finally engaged a taxicab. Sheriff Kowen engaged another, and his deputy a third.
They trailed her to a part of the city where were to be found houses that once had been the homes of wealthy persons of social prominence. But now those of wealth and society had moved to another section, and these relics of other days were rented for various purposes. Here were to be found small shops, cheap boarding houses, palmists, clairvoyants and others of their ilk. Here and there were smaller houses back from the street, some with billboards before them.
Mamie Blanchard left her taxicab at a corner, glanced around, and walked down the street. Kowen and the deputy shadowed her. It was not difficult in this section.
Mamie Blanchard was acting as if apprehensive now. She glanced around continually. Once she stood for several minutes in front of a store window.
"On the right track!" Sheriff Kowen told himself. "She's going to that crook's headquarters, all right, and she wants to make sure she isn't being followed."
He made a sign to his deputy, and they began to approach each other. Mamie Blanchard had walked on down the street. Suddenly she darted through a little gate, and walked swiftly toward one of the smaller houses that sat back from the street.
Kowen and his deputy saw her go into the cottage.
"Go telephone for half a dozen of the men," Kowen ordered the other. "When they come, scatter them around the block, and then come back here to me. Either that house is the Black Star's headquarters, or the people there have something to do with him. I'll watch."
The deputy hurried away, and Kowen kept his eyes on the house. He supposed there was a rear door, but behind the house was a high, blank wall, and he knew that nobody could leave the place without walking directly toward him.
Kowen's heart began pounding at his ribs. If he could capture the Black Star so soon after his escape, he would be the man of the hour. He would show charity by calling in the police and Roger Verbeck, but theirs would be reflected glory, and Kowen knew it well.
The deputy returned at the end of half an hour. Men were posted behind the alley wall, he explained, and were watching the house from the buildings on either side. Nobody could get out without being seen and stopped.
"Then we'll go in," the sheriff said.
They walked boldly to the front door of the cottage, and the sheriff rang the bell. Nobody answered. Three times he rang, and yet nobody came to the door, nor could they hear the slightest sound inside the house.
"They're in there, all right; and won't answer!" Sheriff Kowen whispered to the deputy. "They have spotted us, and know that we have them cornered. I'm going to signal for the other men, and we'll break into the place. It's stretching the law a little, maybe, but I'll run the risk. This isn't like an ordinary case; we're after the Black Star, remember!"
The sheriff gave the signal, and then he and the deputy remained on guard and alert for five minutes, at the end of which time half a dozen more deputies had come from near-by buildings and joined their superior officer. Kowen explained the situation to them in a few words.
"And you want to be ready to go into action!" he concluded. "If the Black Star or any of his gang are in this house, they'll be prepared to put up a fight, and don't forget it! Watch out for those vapor guns and bombs!"
The sheriff rang the bell again, waited for several minutes, gave those inside a last chance to come to the door. But he waited in vain.
"Can't afford to waste any more time," he told his men. "We saw that Blanchard woman go in there, and, from the way she acted before she did, I'm sure this is either the big crook's headquarters or where some of his people are living. Every minute we wait out here, we give them a chance to get ready for us. Two of you men remain outside and see that nobody gets away from the place; I'll call you if we need you inside."
Kowen signaled to one of his biggest deputies. The man advanced, put his shoulder against the door, pressed against it.
"Got it bolted, I guess!" he said.
He backed away, rushed forward, struck the door again with his shoulder, and burst the door open.
Sheriff Kowen and his deputies sprawled into the little front hall of the cottage!