If you had not
spoken, I would have arranged for some one else to do it. I
couldn't allow poor Baudru Desire to be convicted."
"Then," murmured Ganimard, "it was you that was there? And now you
are here?"
"It is I, always I, only I."
"Can it be possible?"
"Oh, it is not the work of a sorcerer. Simply, as the judge
remarked at the trial, the apprenticeship of a dozen years that
equips a man to cope successfully with all the obstacles in life."
"But your face? Your eyes?"
"You can understand that if I worked eighteen months with Doctor
Altier at the Saint-Louis hospital, it was not out of love for the
work. I considered that he, who would one day have the honor of
calling himself Arsene Lupin, ought to be exempt from the ordinary
laws governing appearance and identity. Appearance? That can be
modified at will. For instance, a hypodermic injection of
paraffine will puff up the skin at the desired spot. Pyrogallic
acid will change your skin to that of an Indian. The juice of the
greater celandine will adorn you with the most beautiful eruptions
and tumors. Another chemical affects the growth of your beard and
hair; another changes the tone of your voice.
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