“It is this,” replied the captain.  “I have never seen this man who says he was a member of the Rackbirds’ band.  In fact, I never saw any of those wretches except dead ones.  He has never met me.  He knows nothing about me.  His charge is simply a piece of revenge.  The only connection he can make between me and the Rackbirds is that he knew two negroes were once the servants of his band, and that they are now the servants of my wife.  Having never seen me, he cannot know me.  Please ask the magistrate to send for some other men in plain clothes to come into this room, and then let the prisoner be brought here, and asked to point out the man he charges with the crime of being the captain of the Rackbirds.”

The professor’s face brightened, and without answer he turned to the magistrate, and laid this proposition before him.  The officer shook his head.  This would be a very irregular method of procedure.  There were formalities which should not be set aside.  The deposition of Banker should be taken before witnesses.  But the professor was interested in Captain Horn’s proposed plan.  In an emergency of the sort, when time was so valuable, he thought it should be tried before anything else was done.  He talked very earnestly to the magistrate, who at last yielded.

In a few minutes three respectable men were brought in from outside, and then a policeman was sent for Banker.

When that individual entered the waiting-room, his eyes ran rapidly over the company assembled there.  After the first glance, he believed that he had never seen one of them before.  But he said nothing; he waited to hear what would be said to him.  This was said quickly.  Banker spoke French, and the magistrate addressed him directly.

“In this room,” he said, “stands the man you have accused as a robber and a murderer, as the captain of the band to which you admit you once belonged.  Point him out immediately.”

Banker’s heart was not in the habit of sinking, but it went down a little now.  Could it be possible that any one there had ever led him to deeds of violence and blood?  He looked again at each man in the room, very carefully this time.  Of course, that rascal Raminez would not come to Paris without disguising himself, and no disguise could be so effectual as the garb of a gentleman.  But if Raminez were there, he should not escape him by any such tricks.  Banker half shut his eyes, and again went over every countenance.  Suddenly he smiled.

“My captain,” he said presently, “is not dressed exactly as he was when I last saw him.  He is in good clothes now, and that made it a little hard for me to recognize him at first.  But there is no mistaking his nose and his eyebrows.  I know him as well as if we had been drinking together last night.  There he stands!” And, with his right arm stretched out, he pointed directly to Professor Barre.

At these words there was a general start, and the face of the magistrate grew scarlet with anger.  As for the professor himself, he knit his brows, and looked at Banker in amazement.