“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 Arsène Lupin.”

A profound silence followed the statement. The judge, nonplussed 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 Arsène Lupin. And the eyes! Did he ever have those alcoholic eyes!”