e door, where for some seconds
he stood with his hand upon the knob.

As the car drew up he slipped into the hall, just as Peters opened
the door.

A moment later the butler started back, his right hand seemed to fly
to his left breast pocket. At the same moment Malcolm Sage sprang
forward. There was a flash, a report, and two bodies fell at the
feet of Inspector Wensdale, of Scotland Yard, and another man
standing beside him.

In a second, however, they had thrown themselves upon the struggling
heap, and when Malcolm Sage rose to his feet it was to look down
upon Peters pinned to the floor by the inspector, with the strange
man sitting on his legs.

II

"There is no witness so sure as the camera," remarked Malcolm Sage
as he gazed from one to the other of two photographs before him, one
representing him holding an automatic pistol to his own head, and
the other in which Sir James was posing as a murderer.

"It is strange that it should be so neglected at Scotland Yard," he
added.

Silent and absorbed when engaged upon a problem, Malcolm Sage
resented speech as a sick man resents arrowroot. At other times he
seemed to find pleasure in lengthy monologues, invariably of a
professional nature.

"But we use it a lot, Mr. Sage," protested Inspector Wensdale.

"For recording the features of criminals," was the retort. "No,
Wensdale, you are obsessed by the finger-print heresy, quite
regardless of the fact that none but an amateur ever leaves such a
thing behind him, and the amateur is never difficult to trace."

He paused for a moment; but the inspector made no comment.

"The two greatest factors in the suppression of crime," continued
Malcolm Sage, "are photography and finger-prints. Both are in use at
Scotland Yard; but each in place of the other. Finger-prints are
regarded as clues, and photography is a means of identification,
whereas finger-prints are of little use except to identify past
offenders, and photography is the greatest aid to the actual tracing
of the criminal."

Malcolm Sage never failed to emphasise the importance of photography
in the detection of crime. He probably used it more than all other
investigators put together. He contended that a photographic print
established for all time what the eye could only dimly register for
the moment, with the consequent danger of forgetfulness.

As the links in a chain multiplied, it was frequently necessary to
refer to the scene of a crime,