"You ce'tainly have a right vivid imagination, ma'am," he said
dryly.

"You are quite sure you have never seen them before?" her velvet
voice asked.

He laughed. "Well, no--I can't say I am."

"Aren't you quite sure you have seen them?'

Her eyes rested on him very steadily.

"You're smart as a whip, Miss Wainwright. I take off my hat to a
young lady so clever. I guess you're right. About the identity of
one of those masked gentlemen I'm pretty well satisfied."

She drew a long breath. "I thought so."

"Yes," he went on evenly, "I once earmarked him so that I'd know
him again in case we met."

"I beg pardon. You--what?"

"Earmarked him. Figure of speech, ma'am. You may not have
observed that the curly-headed person behind the guns was shy the
forefinger of his right hand. We had a little difficulty once
when he was resisting arrest, and it just happened that my gun
fanned away his trigger finger." He added reminiscently: