“For the Lord’s sake!” breathed Knebworth, staring at the detective. “I’ve never seen a man made up so well that he deceived me.”
“I’ve deceived everybody, including myself,” said Michael savagely. “I thought I’d caught him with a dummy letter, instead of which the devil caught me.”
“What was it?”
“Ammonia, I think—a concentrated solution thereof,” said Michael.
It was twenty minutes before he emerged from the bathroom, his eyes inflamed but otherwise his old self.
“I wanted to trap him in my own way, but he was too smart for me.”
“Do you know who he is?”
Michael nodded.
“Oh, yes, I know,” he said. “I’ve got a special force of men here, waiting to effect the arrest, but I didn’t want a fuss, and I certainly did not want bloodshed. And bloodshed there will be, unless I am mistaken.”
“I didn’t seem to recognize the car, and I know most of the machines in this city,” said Jack.