er one eye and who had an
evil-looking scar running from his cheekbone, apparently--or at any
rate from the edge of the bandage--to the corner of his mouth, so that
the lip was drawn up in a fierce and permanent snarl.

At this person Stuart stared blankly, until Dunbar began to laugh.

"It's a wonderful make-up, isn't it?" he said. "I used to say that
disguises were out of date, but M. Max has taught me I was wrong."

"Max!" cried Stuart.

"At your service," replied the apparition, "but for this evening only
I am 'Le Belafre.' Yes, _pardieu!_ I am a real dead man!"

The airy indifference which he proclaimed himself to represent one
whose awful body had but that day been removed from a mortuary, and
one whom in his own words he had "had the misfortune to strangle,"
was rather ghastly and at the same time admirable. For "Le Balafre"
had deliberately tried to murder him, and false sentiment should form
no part of the complement of a criminal investigator.

"It is a daring idea," said Stuart, "and relies for its success upon
the chance that 'The Scorpion' remains ignorant of the fate of his
agent and continues to believe that the body found off Hanover Hole
was yours."

"The admirable precautions of my clever colleague," replied Max,
laying his hand upon Dunbar's shoulder, "in closing the mortuary and
publishing particulars of the identification disk, made it perfectly
safe. 'Le Balafre' has been in hiding. He emerges!"

Stuart had secret reasons for knowing that Max's logic was not at
fault, and this brought him to the matter of the sealed paper. He
took up the envelope.

"I have here," he said slowly, "a statement. Examine the seal."

He held it out, and Max and Dunbar looked at it. The latter laughed
shortly.

"Oh, it is a real statement," continued Stuart, "the nature of which
I am not at liberty to divulge. But as to-night we take risks, I
propose to leave it in your charge, Inspector."

He handed the envelope to Dunbar, whose face was blank with
astonishment.

"In the event of failure to-night," added Stuart, "or catastrophe, I
authorise you to read this statement--and act upon it. If, however, I
escape safely, I ask you to return it to me, unread."

_"Eh bien,"_ said Max, and fixed that eye the whole of which was
visible upon Stuart. "Perhaps I understand, and certainly"--he removed
his hand from Dunbar's shoulder and rested it upon that of Stuart--
"but certainly, my friend, I sympathise!"

Stua