ense is open to you. But I shall proceed
with the trial and pay no heed to your vagaries."

He then narrated at length the various thefts, swindles and forgeries
charged against Lupin. Sometimes he questioned the prisoner, but the
latter simply grunted or remained silent. The examination of witnesses
commenced. Some of the evidence given was immaterial; other portions
of it seemed more important, but through all of it there ran a vein of
contradictions and inconsistencies. A wearisome obscurity enveloped
the proceedings, until Detective Ganimard was called as a witness; then
interest was revived.

From the beginning the actions of the veteran detective appeared strange
and unaccountable. He was nervous and ill at ease. Several times he
looked at the prisoner, with obvious doubt and anxiety. Then, with his
hands resting on the rail in front of him, he recounted the events in
which he had participated, including his pursuit of the prisoner
across Europe and his arrival in America. He was listened to with great
avidity, as his capture of Arsene Lupin was well known to everyone
through the medium of the press. Toward the close of his testimony,
after referring to his conversations with Arsene Lupin, he stopped,
twice, embarrassed and undecided. It was apparent that he was possessed
of some thought which he feared to utter. The judge said to him,
sympathetically:

"If you are ill, you may retire for the present."

"No, no, but---"

He stopped, looked sharply at the prisoner, and said:

"I ask permission to scrutinize the prisoner at closer range. There is
some mystery about him that I must solve."

He approached the accused man, examined him attentively for several
minutes, then returned to the witness-stand, and, in an almost solemn
voice, he said:

"I declare, on oath, that the prisoner now before me is not Arsene
Lupin."

A profound silence followed the statement. The judge, nonplused for a
moment, exclaimed:

"Ah! What do you mean? That is absurd!"

The detective continued:

"At first sight there is a certain resemblance, but if you carefully
consider the nose, the mouth, the hair, the color of skin, you will
see that it is not Arsene Lupin. And the eyes! Did he ever have those
alcoholic eyes!"

"Come, come, witness! What do you mean? Do you pretend to say that we
are trying the wrong man?"

"In my opinion, yes. Arsene Lupin has, in some manner, contrived to put
this poor devil in his place, unless th