“There are some little points,” he said with a deprecating wave of the hand, “which I should like to confirm.”  He opened the book, sought the wanted page, and continued:  “Do either of you know a person answering to the following description:  Height, about four feet eight-and-a-half inches, medium build and carries himself with a nervous stoop.  Has a habit of rubbing his palms together when addressing anyone.  Has plump hands with rather tapering fingers, and a growth of reddish down upon the backs thereof, indicating that he has red or reddish hair.  His chin recedes slightly and is pointed, with a slight cleft parallel with the mouth and situated equidistant from the base of the chin and the lower lip.  A nervous mannerism of the latter periodically reveals the lower teeth, one of which, that immediately below the left canine, is much discolored.  He is clean-shaven, but may at some time have worn whiskers.  His eyes are small and ferret-like, set very closely together and of a ruddy brown color.  His nose is wide at the bridge, but narrows to an unusual point at the end.  In profile it is irregular, or may have been broken at some time.  He has scanty eyebrows set very high, and a low forehead with two faint, vertical wrinkles starting from the inner points of the eyebrows.  His natural complexion is probably sallow, and his hair (as hitherto mentioned) either red or of sandy color.  His ears are set far back, and the lobes are thin and pointed.  His hair is perfectly straight and sparse, and there is a depression of the cheeks where one would expect to find a prominence:  that is—­at the cheekbone.  The cranial development is unusual.  The skull slopes back from the crown at a remarkable angle, there being no protuberance at the back, but instead a straight slope to the spine, sometimes seen in the Teutonic races, and in this case much exaggerated.  Viewed from the front the skull is narrow, the temples depressed, and the crown bulging over the ears, and receding to a ridge on top.  In profile the forehead is almost apelike in size and contour....”

“Soames!” exclaimed Inspector Dunbar, leaping to his feet, and bringing both his palms with a simultaneous bang upon the table before him—­“Soames, by God!”

M. Max, shrugging and smiling slightly, returned his notebook to his pocket, and, taking out a cigar-case, placed it, open, upon the table, inviting both his confreres, with a gesture, to avail themselves of its contents.

“I thought so,” he said simply.  “I am glad.”

Sowerby selected a cigar in a dazed manner, but Dunbar, ignoring the presence of the cigar-case, leant forward across the table, his eyes blazing, and his small, even, lower teeth revealed in a sort of grim smile.

“M.  Max,” he said tensely—­“you are a clever man!  Where have you got him?”

“I have not got him,” replied the Frenchman, selecting and lighting one of his own cigars.  “He is much too useful to be locked up"...