where he had looked at it that morning?

[90]

“What’s the matter, sir?”

“Parkyns, you say you were in the Alvarez case?”

“I was, sir; but, as I told you, I’d forgotten it.”

“And you haven’t noticed the likeness?”

“Line for line, feature for feature, the face was that of Dolores Alvarez”

[91]“I never saw the body of Miss Alvarez.”

[91]

“Well, I did see her, and I remember her face. I’ve got a miniature of her hanging in my chambers, so I know it well. Now, you can take it from me, inspector, that the two faces are so similar that they might be the same woman. If we didn’t know the one was dead, and had been buried twenty years ago, I would have taken my oath they were the same. The likeness is as strong as that. I never saw such a likeness in my life. Talk about doubles, it’s an absolute reincarnation.”

The inspector was silent as Tempest, leaning on the foot of the bed, gazed fascinated at the face of the dead woman.

“How are you going to identify her? You’ll have to try.”

“I’m going to have the body photographed here, before it is moved, and then we shall take a cast of the face, and thoroughly[92] examine the body. That’s all that we can do, as far as I can see. We shall examine the teeth, and I think we shall try and get finger-prints; but she hardly looks as if her finger-prints are likely to be in our collection.”

[92]

“No. There’s nothing of the criminal in that face. Was she married?”

“The doctor says not, and there is no mark of any wedding-ring.”

“What colour are her eyes?”

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