"I thought you said Mr. Tompkins knew Davenport," remarked Bagley to
Larcher, as soon as all in the party were seated.
"Certainly," replied Larcher.
"Then, Mr. Tompkins, you don't seem to live up to your reputation as a
quick-sighted man," said Bagley.
"I beg pardon?" said Tompkins, interrogatively, touched in one of
his vanities.
"Is it possible you don't recognize this gentleman?" asked Bagley,
indicating Turl. "As somebody you've met before, I mean?"
"Extremely possible," replied Tompkins, with a sudden curtness in his
voice. "I do _not_ recognize this gentleman as anybody I've met before.
But, as I never forget a face, I shall always recognize him in the future
as somebody I've met to-night." Whereat he grinned benignly at Turl, who
acknowledged with a courteous "Thank you."
"You never forget a face," said Bagley, "and yet you don't remember this
one. Make allowance for its having undergone a lot of alterations, and
look close at it. Put a hump on the nose, and take the dimples away, and
don't let the corners of the mouth turn up, and pull the hair down over
the forehead, and imagine several other changes, and see if you don't
make out your old acquaintance--and my old friend--Murray Davenport."
Tompkins gazed at Turl, then at the speaker, and finally--with a
wondering inquiry--at Larcher. It was Turl who answered the inquiry.
"Mr. Bagley is perfectly sane and serious," said he. "He declares I am
the Murray Davenport who disappeared a few months ago, and thinks you
ought to be able to identify me as that person.
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