"After Mannion was discharged as cured, he proceeded to make the next move in the game. I suppose you know, Mr. Feversham, that there are now many surgeons, professionals and quacks, who make a specialty of changing facial appearance. Twenty years ago the thing was almost unheard of. Now there have been so many demonstrations that the practise is carried on to an extent that would amaze you were you to be furnished with the statistics. There is one of these practitioners in Baltimore. I sent Chick to investigate. He proved the correctness of my theory, and he brought back these." The detective from his pocketbook took two small photographs and handed them to Feversham. One was a counterfeit full-length presentment of Arthur Mannion as he appeared before the disguise, but after the amputation, and, facially, as Nick had seen him at the house on L Street; the other was a reproduction of the person of the so-called Peter Mannion. "'Before taking,' and 'After taking,'" said Nick, with a smile. "Do you understand? And do you notice that each picture is of a one-armed man?" "Yes. One was taken when the patient arrived; the other when the operation had been performed. If I used slang I should say it is a dead give-away." said Feversham. "It is nothing else. Surgery fixed the features and changed the workings of the vocal chords, while chlorine or peroxide of hydrogen altered the color of the hair and eyebrows. Besides all this, I have other evidence of a minor nature which goes to cement the case against Arthur Mannion." "What you have offered is sufficient, Mr. Carter. It is evidence overwhelming in its nature. Confront your prisoner with it and he must confess." That is what Nick did. The next day he called at the jail, had an interview with Mannion, told him what proofs had been gathered, both of the impersonation and of the murder, and the result was that the wicked stepson of James Playfair threw up his hands and made full confession. He had, as the great detective supposed, robbed Playfair's house in order to obtain the key to the bank deposit box. He found the key, and he found something more--the money and a package of his mother's letters in the locked drawer. The letters were used as a lure for the appointment by the river, and the murder was committed with deliberate intent, Goloff assisting by holding Playfair's arms while Mannion choked the old man to death. The scheme of the bogus will had been concocted in St. Louis, where Mannion had, by previous arrangement, met Goloff, who had left San Francisco a week before the departure of Mannion and his wife from that city. The forgery had not been a difficult task, for Mannion was an expert in that line, and he had some of Playfair's old letters as a guide.