Saul Arthur Mann bristled.
"You may carry this off, sir," he began, "if you can—"
"Let me speak," said Jasper Cole, raising his voice. "I want to ask you this: Have you a complete record of John Minute's life?"
"I know it so well," said Saul Arthur Mann emphatically, "that I could repeat his history word for word."
"Will you sit down, May?" said Jasper, taking the girl's hand in his and gently forcing her to a chair. "We are going to put Mr. Mann's memory to the test."
"Do you seriously mean that you want me to repeat that history?" asked the other suspiciously.
"I mean just that," said Jasper, and drew up a chair for his unpleasant visitor.
The record of John Minute's life came trippingly from Mann's tongue. He knew to an extraordinary extent the details of that strange and wild career.
"In 1892," said the investigator, continuing his narrative, "he was married at St. Bride's church, Port Elizabeth, to Agnes Gertrude Cole."
"Cole," murmured Jasper.