The Yellow Face

by Fred M. White

As it happened, the necessary implements were there to hand. There were occasions, Bates explained, when such things were necessary. Now and then some sprig of the nobility who had dined not wisely but too well found himself in the cells in a more or less dilapidated condition, and here it was that the paint-box came in. Black eyes and discolored faces and that kind of thing, Bates explained. "I assure you that a dash or two of paint makes all the difference in the world."

Jack smiled as he bent over the photograph, and with a few subtle touches decorated the face with a fierce blond moustache. He handed the card over without comment to Zimburg. The little man's face fairly beamed with delight.

"Ah! but you are a clever gentleman," he cried. "Now I know our friend. Yes, yes, but he is a very clever man. And older than he looks, mind you; that fellow has eluded the Continental police for years. It would be absurd to try and give his real name, for probably he has forgotten it himself. Yes, I have heard of his playing before; not that I regarded him as quite good enough for a public platform. Wherever that man goes, roguery follows as a matter of course. Depend upon it, his appearance here means mischief. I will have him carefully watched, and before long I shall have the pleasure of laying him by the heels."

"Don't do that, at least until you are absolutely obliged to," Jack said eagerly. "We are interested, deeply interested, in the movements of Signor Padini. It is more or less of a private matter, but if you could provide us with some means of getting a hold on that fellow we should be exceedingly obliged to you."

Zimburg promised to do his best, and departed. For some little time Rigby and Bates stood discussing the most recent developments of the case, whilst Jack sat in a thoughtful attitude, evidently puzzling something out.

"Do you call Zimburg a really clever detective?" he asked at length. "It seems to me that he has a poor memory for faces. For instance, he had not the slightest idea who the man Padini was till that moustache was added to the face of the photograph."

Bates, eager in defense of his colleagues, remarked that a little thing like that often made a vast difference.

"That is one of the great advantages of the Bertillon system," he explained. "I don't care how clever a man may be--and when I speak of a clever man I mean a policeman in this instance--he is often utterly deceived by some slight physical change. Take the case of the late Charles Peace if you like. I understand that he could alter the expression and even the shape of his face entirely. Make your mind quite easy, for Zimburg will work it all out like some ingenious puzzle. I suppose you are aware of the fact that the London and Paris police have thousands of careful records made of the measurements of well-known criminals?"

"But Zimburg can't very well measure Padini," Rigby argued. "He can't make him drunk, or anything of that kind."

"No, but he can have him arrested on some faked-up charge," Bates laughed. "That little game has been played more than once when we wanted the measurements of some clever criminal who had never passed through our hands."