“Now, do you see any likeness between that ill face and Cleve’s?” inquired Palma, appealing to her cousin.
“Not the least!” exclaimed Ran on the first cursory glance at the miniature. Then holding it closer and gazing more attentively he exclaimed suddenly:
“Why, I know this fellow! It is Gentleman Geff, as he appeared when he first came to Grizzly, before he shaved his mustache off and let his beard grow! It’s Gentleman Geff!”
“‘Gentleman Geff!’” echoed all the ladies, except Mrs. Walling, who took the picture and gazed at it in silence for a moment, and then, returning it, said:
“Yes! I see now! So it is! Though the full beard made so great a difference that even the likeness did not occur to me. Excuse me one moment, friends. I will return directly.” And she hastily left the room.
Ran could scarcely get over his astonishment at his discovery. Gentleman Geff, the very fine dude who had seemed too dainty for any of the rudenesses of life, yet who had treacherously shot him in the woods, robbed him of his documents, and possessed himself of his estates, was also the man who had attempted the murder of his own wife and feloniously married another woman!
“But who is Gentleman Geff?” inquired Palma, Mrs. Duncan and Miss Christiansen, in a breath.
“Please wait a little, ladies, until the return of Mrs. Walling. Perhaps she will inform you, or allow me to tell you, who he is,” said Ran respectfully, and even deprecatingly.
Mrs. Walling returned with what might be called Mr. Walling’s professional photograph album in her hand.
She opened it at a certain page and pointed out a face and said: