art which the Endicott could not
overclimb. Then his spirits rose, and he listened without dread to the
story. How pitiful! What a fate for that splendid boy, the son of a
brave soldier and a peerless mother! A human being allied with a beast!
Oh, tender heart of Honora that sighed for him so pitifully! Oh, true
spirit that recognized how impossible for Horace Endicott ever to
return! Down, out of sight forever, husband of Agrippina! The furies lie
in wait for thee, wretched husband of their daughter! Have shame enough
to keep in thy grave until thou goest to meet Sonia at the judgment
seat!

Captain Curran was not at all flattered by the deep interest which
Arthur took for the next two days in the case of Tom Jones; but the
young man nettled him by his emphatic assertions that the detective had
adopted a wrong theory as to the mysterious disappearance. They went
over the question of motives and of methods. The shrewd objections of
Dillon gave him favor in Curran's eyes. Before long the secret documents
in the Captain's possession were laid before him under obligations of
secrecy. He saw various photographs of Endicott, and wondered at the
blindness of man; for here side by side were the man sought and his
portrait, yet the detective could not see the truth. Was it possible
that the exterior man had changed so thoroughly to match the inner
personality which had grown up in him? He was conscious of such a
change. The mirror which reflected Arthur Dillon displayed a figure in
no way related to the portrait.

"It seems to me," said Arthur, after a study of the photograph, "that I
would be able to reach that man, no matter what his disguise."

"Disguises are mere veils," said Curran, "which the trained eye of the
detective can pierce easily. But the great difficulty lies in a natural
disguise, in the case where the man's appearance changes without
artificial aids. Here are two photographs which will illustrate my
meaning. Look at this."

Arthur saw a young and well-dressed fellow who might have been a student
of good birth and training.

"Now look at this," said the Captain, "and discover that they picture
one and the same individual, with a difference in age of two years."

The second portrait was a vigorous, rudely-dressed, bearded adventurer,
as much like the first as Dillon was like Grahame. Knowing that the
portraits stood for the same youth, Arthur could trace a resemblance in
the separate features, but in the