"'I fear you have drawn a blank this time, Mr. Pirate; for, upon my word, that is the best I can do for you.'
"The Pirate took the articles. Then he raised his hat. 'I take,' he said, 'the August word as readily as I take these souvenirs of this memorable meeting,' and with these words, he pulled a lever and was speedily out of sight."
"By Jove!" I muttered. "The fellow's audacity is almost past belief. But you said something of observations made by the August victim?"
"Yes," said Forrest. "The chauffeur was much too agitated to notice anything, but his master was not. He observed four things. First, that the Pirate was a man of about six feet in height."
"Mannering is five feet eleven and a quarter in his socks," I remarked.
"Secondly, that his hair was black. Thirdly, that the nails of the right hand, with which he took his plunder, were bitten to the quick."
"The identification becomes nearly perfect," I interrupted.
"Fourthly, that the car was originally a two-seated car, with a tonneau body, but that the seat had been set back, and the bonnet was enclosed by metal plates shaped into the form of the bow of a canoe, and bolted together in a manner which gave the impression that they might easily be removed. Why," continued the detective, "I did not think of so obvious a solution of the Pirate's mysterious disappearances before I cannot imagine. It is the trick the black flag merchants have practised since the days of Captain Kidd."
I was silent. I could only wonder at my own blindness. Then an excuse occurred to me.
"After all," I remarked, "we only met him in the dark."