From one of his pockets he drew a small leather case, which contained sticks of grease paint in tin foil, with other articles that he might require in making up his face.
First of all, he had to take the Garnford red out of his cheeks. Then he carefully imitated the complexion of the acting governor, being particular to put on two small moles that he observed on the cheek and chin respectively of the unconscious man.
In the course of ten minutes he had almost completely reproduced the features of Jabez Portersham on his own countenance.
Line by line he brought out the contour of the young man’s face, with every light wrinkle, every depression, every rounded part, and every turn of expression that was part of the original, no matter how elusive and slight it might be.
The first thing he did was to put on a wig of light hair, so near the hue of Portersham’s that it might almost have been made from the original. It had a touch of gray at the temples, which was so exactly like that on the sides of the acting governor’s head that it might have deceived his most intimate acquaintance.
“Good!” chuckled Rayne softly. “I’m glad I managed to have a good squint at him on the street to-day. I reckon I’m getting it about as close as any one could hope to do it.”
Actors, in making up, always put the wig on first, building up the face afterward, and Rayne did the work in the approved professional way.
When everything seemed to be done, Rayne took a small mirror from his pocket and examined himself critically under the strong, shaded electric light. Then he walked over to a large mirror on the mantel and took a general view.
He was entirely satisfied with himself in the large mirror, as well as in the small one.
The nature of the Apache was so strange, and he had so much vanity in his composition, stern as he was, that just then he thought much more of the skill he had displayed in the art of make-up than of the fortune in gems he was fighting so hard to retain, in the very teeth of the detective who always had overcome him heretofore, Nick Carter.