"I got the picture," he clipped, "but we're going to have to work fast. The police probably are on their way here now. Vance caught me in the act of stealing the painting." He still was panting from the exertion of his race here.
"Then clip it to this frame quickly!" The professor indicated an arrangement like an oversize drawing board. He hurried to assist the younger man. In a moment their work was done.
There, at last, was "Elaine Duchard's Escape." Mark for the first time studied it carefully.
Four people were shown. The central figure was that of the first Elaine Duchard. She was in the act of entering a carriage, her lovely face alive with panic. Beside her a young man—his face in the shadows—held a horse pistol on another man. This second man's features were twisted with hate; Mark thought he never had seen such malevolent eyes.
"Baron Morriere" the professor explained. "The younger man is Jacques Rombeau, Elaine Duchard's lover."
Mark nodded. Turned to scrutinize a third man, unidentifiable, who was clambering to the driver's seat of the coach.
The next instant the laboratory was re-echoing with the sound of heavy blows upon the door.
"Open up!" roared a muffled voice. "It's the law!"
"The police!" Mark's face went pale.