“There.  She is going away now.  Well, I guess the collection is all over.  He has his hat on and a third cigar, ready to go as soon as somebody signals that the coast is clear.  That was a good day’s work for Ike and the man higher up, whoever he is.  Ah—­there he goes.  It was a signal from the waiter he was after.  Now we may as well finish this luncheon.  It cost enough.”

For several minutes we ate in silence.

“I wish I could have followed Ike,” observed Craig.  “But of course it would have been of no use.  To go out right after him would have given the whole thing away.”

“Who is that dark-haired, dark-skinned woman, Marie, do you suppose?” asked Clare.  “Sometimes I almost think she is part negro.”

“I don’t know.  I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if you were right.  If you have any investigators to spare, they might try to find out who she is and something of her history.  I will give them a copy of these notes which I intend to turn over to the Department of Justice men who have been making the white slave investigation for the Federal Government.”

Kennedy had laid the notes which he had made on the menu before us and was copying them.  Both Clare and I leaned over to read them.  It was Greek to me: 

Nose—­straight, base elevated, nostrils thick, slightly flaring.

Ears—­lobe descending oval, traversed by a hollow, antitragus concave; lobe separated from cheek.

Lips—­large.

Mouth—­large.

Chin—­receding.

There was much more that he had jotted down and added to the description.

“Oh,” exclaimed Clare, as she ran through the writing, “that is this new portrait parle, the spoken picture, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” replied Kennedy.  “You may know that the Government has been using it in its white slave inquiry and has several thousands of such descriptions.  Under the circumstances, I understand that the Government agents find it superior to finger-prints.  Finger-prints are all right for identification, as we have found right here, for instance, in the Night Court.  But Bertillon’s new portrait parle is the thing for apprehension.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Well, take the case before us.  We have had no chance to finger-print that woman and what good would it do if we had?  No one could recognize her that way until she was arrested or some means had been taken to get the prints again.

“But the portrait parle is scientific apprehension, the step that comes before scientific identification by finger-prints.  It means giving the detective an actual portrait of the person he is sent after without burdening him with a photograph.  As descriptions are now given, together with a photograph, a person is described as of such a weight, height, general appearance, and so on.  A clever crook knows that.  He knows how to change his appearance so that there are few even of the best detectives who can recognize him.  This new system describes the features so that a man can carry them in his mind systematically, features that cannot be changed.