here's no trace of him here."

"We shall see," said the doctor, adjusting his instrument.

"I believe that a microscope of sufficient power will reveal on the retina
of these dead eyes the image of this devil as if etched there by fire. The
experiment has been made successfully in France. No word or deed of man is
lost. A German scholar has a memory so wonderful he can repeat whole
volumes of Latin, German, and French without an error. A Russian officer
has been known to repeat the roll-call of any regiment by reading it
twice. Psychologists hold that nothing is lost from the memory of man.
Impressions remain in the brain like words written on paper in invisible
ink. So I believe of images in the eye if we can trace them early enough.
If no impression were made subsequently on the mother's eye by the light
of day, I believe the fire-etched record of this crime can yet be
traced."

Ben watched him with breathless interest.

He first examined Marion's eyes. But in the cold azure blue of their pure
depths he could find nothing.

"It's as I feared with the child," he said. "I can see nothing. It is on
the mother I rely. In the splendour of life, at thirty-seven she was the
full-blown perfection of womanhood, with every vital force at its highest
tension----"

He looked long and patiently into the dead mother's eye, rose and wiped
the perspiration from his face.

"What is it, sir?" asked Ben.

Without reply, as if in a trance, he returned to the microscope and again
rose with the little, quick, nervous cough he gave only in the greatest
excitement, and whispered:

"Look now and tell me what you see."

Ben looked and said:

"I can see nothing."

"Your powers of vision are not trained as mine," replied the doctor,
resuming his place at the instrument.

"What do you see?" asked the younger man, bending nervously.

"The bestial figure of a negro--his huge black hand plainly defined--the
upper part of the face is dim, as if obscured by a gray mist of dawn--but
the massive jaws and lips are clear--merciful God--yes--it's Gus!"

The doctor leaped to his feet livid with excitement.

Ben bent again, looked long and eagerly, but could see nothing.

"I'm afraid the image is in your eye, sir, not the mother's," said Ben
sadly.

"That's possible, of course," said the doctor, "yet I don't believe it."

"I've thought of the same scoundrel and tried blood hounds on that track,
but for some reason they couldn't follow