XXXI
PHYSOSTIGMIN
The first drug store we found was unable to supply us. At a second wehad better luck. All in all, we were back at the Manton Pictures plantin a relatively few minutes, a remarkable bit of driving on the part ofthe district attorney.
Shirley was still in the set. Kennedy at once administered thephysostigmin, I thought with an air of great relief.
"This is one of the rare cases in which two drugs, both highlypoisonous, are definitely antagonistic," he explained. "Each,therefore, is an antidote for the other when properly administered."
Marilyn was chafing Shirley's cold hands, tears resting shamelesslyupon her lids, a look of deep inexpressible fear in her expression.
"Will--will you be able to save him, Professor?" she asked, not once,but a dozen different times.
None of the rest of us spoke. We waited anxiously for the first signsof hope, the first indication that the heavy man's life might bepreserved. It was wholly a question whether the physostigmin had beengiven to him quickly enough.
Kennedy straightened finally, and we knew that the crisis was over.Marilyn broke down completely and had to be supported to a chair.Strong, willing arms lifted Shirley to take him to his dressing room.
At that moment Kennedy stood up, raising his voice so as to demand theattention of everyone, taking charge of matters through sheer force ofpersonality.
"I have come here this afternoon," he began, "to apprehend the man orwoman responsible for the death of Miss Lamar and Mr. Werner, for thefire in the negative vault, and now for this attempt upon the life ofMr. Shirley."
Not a sound was evident as he paused, no movement save a vague, uneasyshifting of position on the part of some of those who had been on thepoint of leaving.
"I have indisputable evidence of the guilty person's identity, but,nevertheless, for reasons which I will explain to you I have not yetcompleted my identification. To do so it is necessary that certainphotographed scenes be projected on the screen and that certain othermatters be made perfectly clear. I am very anxious, you see, toeliminate the slightest possibility of error.
"Mr. Mackay here"--Kennedy smiled, very slightly--"is the districtattorney with jurisdiction at Tarrytown. At my request, sinceyesterday--or, to be exact, since the death of Mr. Werner warned usthat no time could be lost--he has carried a 'John Doe' warrant.Immediately following my identification of the guilty person he--orshe--will be placed under arrest. The charge will be the murder ofStella Lamar by the use of poison in a manner which I will explain toyou. The trial will take place at White Plains, the county seat ofWestchester County, where the murder occurred. Mr. Mackay informs methat the courts there are not crowded; in fact, he personally has beenable to devote most of his time to this case. Therefore the trial willbe speedy and I am sure that the cold-blooded methods used by thiscriminal will guarantee a quick sentence and an early trip to theelectric chair at Ossining. Now"--suddenly grim--"if everyone will godown to the projection room, the larger one, we will bring matters totheir proper conclusion."
I imagined that Kennedy's speech was calculated to spread a littlewholesome fear among the people we had considered suspects. In any casethat was the result, for an outsider, from the expressions upon thevarious faces, might have concluded that several of them were guilty.Each seemed to start off across the studio floor reluctantly, as thoughafraid to obey Kennedy, yet unable to resist the fascination ofwitnessing the identification of the criminal, as though feeling thathe or she individually might be accused, and yet unwilling to seeksafety at the expense of missing Kennedy's revelation of his methodsand explanation of their result.
I drew him aside as quickly as I could.
"Craig," I started, eagerly, "isn't this all unnecessary? Can't you seethat Shirley is the guilty man? If you will hurry into his room withpaper and pencil and get his confession before he recovers from hisfright and regains his assurance--"
"What on earth, Walter!" Kennedy interrupted me with a look of surprisewhich I did not miss even in my excitement. "What are you driving at,anyway?"
"Why, Shirley is the criminal. He--"
"Nonsense! Wasn't an attempt made to kill him just now? Wasn't itevident that he was considered as dangerous to the unknown as Werner,the director? Hasn't he been eliminated from our calculations as surelyas the man slain yesterday?"
"No!" I flushed. "Not at all, Craig! This was not an attempt at murder.There were none of the criminal's earmarks noticeable at Tarrytown orin the banquet scene."
"How do you mean, Walter?" For once Kennedy regarded me seriously.
"Why, you pointed out yourself that this unknown was exceptionallyclever. The attempt on Shirley, if it were an attempt, was not cleverat all."
"Why?"
"Why?" I was a little sarcastic, because I was sure of myself. "Becausethe poison was atropin--belladonna. That is common. I've read of anynumber of crimes where that was used. Do you think for a moment thatthe mind which figured out how to use snake venom, and botulin toxin,would descend to anything as ordinary as all this?"
"Well, if it was not an attempt at murder, what was it?"
"Suicide! It's as plain as the nose on your face. Shirley was passingus as we were standing with Millard and as you told Millard we all wereto go to the projection room to identify the criminal. ThereforeShirley knew he was at the end of his rope. With the theatricaltemperament, he took the poison just as he finished playing his lastgreat scene. It--it was a sort of swan song."
"Quite a theory, Walter!" Now I knew Kennedy was unimpressed. "But,where did he get the belladonna?"
"For his eyes. After the smoke smart."
"The drug is of no use against such inflammation."
"No, but it served to brighten his eyes. Enid suggested it to him andhe went out and got it. It helped him play his scenes. It gave him theglittering expression he needed in his characterization."
Again Kennedy seemed to grasp my view. He hesitated for severalmoments. Finally he looked up.
"If Shirley is the criminal, and if he is above using as common a drugas atropin for killing another man, then--then why isn't he above usingit upon himself?"
That struck me as easy to answer. "Because if he is killing himself itis not necessary for him to cover his tracks, or to do it cleverly, andbesides"--it was my big point--"he probably didn't decide to try to doit until he overheard us and realized the menace. At that time he hadthe belladonna in his pocket. He did not have an opportunity to procureanything else."
Kennedy grinned. "You're all wrong, Walter, and I'll show you whereyour reasoning is faulty. In the first place if this criminal was thetype to commit suicide at the moment he thought he was about to becaught he would be the type who would reflect upon that ideabeforehand. As his crimes show a great deal of previous preparation, sowe may assume that he would prepare for suicide, or rather for thepossibility that he might wish to attempt it. Therefore he would havesomething better for that purpose than atropin."
I shook my head, but Kennedy continued.
"As a matter of fact, the use of that drug is not less clever than theuse of the venom or the toxin; it is more so. Stop and think a minute!The snake venom was employed in the case of Miss Lamar's death becauseit offered about the least possible chance of leaving telltale cluesbehind. The snake poison could be inflicted with a tiny scratch, and insuch a way that an outcry from the girl would never be noticed. Nothingbut my pocket lens caught the scratch; only the great care I used in myexamination put us on the trail at all.
"Now remember how Werner met his death. The toxin gave every symptom offood poisoning. Except that we discovered the broken stem of thewineglass we would never have been able to prove the tragedy anythingbut accident. Very possibly we have Shirley to thank for the fact thatour one clue there was not removed or destroyed.
"In both cases the selection of the poison was suited to theconditions. Therefore, if an attempt was made to kill Shirley--and ofthe fact I am sure--we might expect that the agent like
wise would beone least apt to create suspicion. There are no portieres, noopportunity for the use of another venom; and besides, that has lostits novelty, and so its value. Similarly there is no use of food orwine in the scene, precluding something else along the toxin order.
"Our unknown realizes that the safest place to commit murder is wherethere is a crowd. He has followed that principle consistently. In thecase of the heavy man, who has a bit of business before the camerawhere he drinks the contents of a little bottle, the very cleverestthing is to use belladonna, because Shirley has employed it for hiseyes, and because"--maliciously, almost--"it leads immediately to thehypothesis of suicide."
"Ye gods, Craig!" A sudden thought struck me and rather terrified me."Do you suppose Enid Faye suggested the use of the drug to Shirley aspart of the scheme to kill him? Is she--"
"I prefer," Kennedy interrupted--"I prefer to suppose that the guiltyperson overheard her, or perhaps saw him buy it or learned in someother way that he was going to use it."
Completely taken up with this new line of thought, I failed to questionKennedy further, and it was just as well because most of the peoplewere on their way down to the projection room, not only those we wishedpresent, but practically everyone of sufficient importance about thestudio to feel that he could intrude.
Kennedy turned to Mackay, who had taken no part in our discussion,although an interested listener. "You have the bag and all theevidence?"
"Yes!" Mackay picked it up. "Watkins, the camera man, watched it for mewhile Jameson and I went after that drug."
Kennedy stooped down quickly, but it was locked and had not beentampered with.
In the corridor by the dressing rooms we met Kauf, and Kennedy stoppedhim.
"How long would it take to make a print from the scene where Shirleytook the poison?"
"We could have it ready in half an hour, in a case of grim necessity."
"Half an hour?" I exclaimed at that, in disbelief. "You couldn't beginto dry the negative in that time, Kauf."
He glanced at me tolerantly. "We make what is called a wet print; thatis, we print from the negative while it is still wet and so we onlyhave the positive to dry. Then we put it on drums in a forced draughtof hot air. The result is not very good, but it's a fine thingsometimes to get a picture of a parade or some accident in a theaterright after it happens."
"Will you do it for me, Kauf?" Kennedy broke in, impatiently. "This isa case of grim necessity," he added.
Kauf hurried off and we made our way across the yard to the stairsleading down into the basement and to the projection room specified byKennedy. Here Manton was waiting, uneasy, flushed, his face gathered ina frown and his hands clenching and unclenching in his nervousness.
"Do you--do you know who it is?" he demanded.
"Not yet," Kennedy replied. "First I must marshal all my evidence."
"Who--who do you want present in the projection room?"
"Mr. Phelps, Mr. Millard, and--yourself, Mr. Manton. Miss Loring andMiss Faye. Mr. Gordon. Anyone else who wishes, if there is room."
"Phelps, Millard, Gordon, and the two girls are inside already."
"Good! We will start at once."
Manton turned, to lead the way in. At that moment there was a call fromthe yard. We stopped, looking up. It was Shirley.
"Wait just a minute," he cried. He was so weak that the two extra menwho were helping him virtually supported his weight. On his face was alook of desperate determination. "I--I must see this too!" he gasped.
XXXII
CAMERA EVIDENCE
Coming in from the bright light of open day, the projection room seemeda gloomy, forbidding place, certainly well calculated to break down thereserve of perhaps the cleverest criminal ever pitting his skillagainst the science of Craig Kennedy.
It was a small room, long and not so wide, with a comparatively lowceiling. In order to obviate eye strain the walls were painted somberlyand there were no light colors in evidence except for a nearly squarepatch of white at the farther end, the screen upon which the pictureswere projected. The illumination was very dim. This was so that therewould be no great contrast between the light reflected from the imagescast upon the screen during pictures and the illumination in the roomitself between reels; again designed to prevent strain upon the eyes ofthe employees whose work was the constant examination of film invarious stages of its assembly.
The chairs were fastened to the floor, arranged in tiny crescents andplaced so as not to interfere with the throw of the pictures frombehind. The projection machines themselves, two in number in order toprovide continuous projection by alternating the reels and so threadingone machine while running the other, were in a fireproof booth orseparate room, connected with the tiny auditorium only by slits in thewall and a sort of porthole through which the operator could talk ortake his instructions.
Directly beneath the openings to the booth were a table equipped with ashaded lamp, a stand for manuscripts, and a signal button. Here thefilm cutters and editors sat, watching the subject upon which theyworked and making notes for changes, for bits of superfluous action tobe cut out, or for titles or spoken inserts to be moved. At a signalthe operator could be instructed to stop at any point, or to start, orto wind back and run some given piece over again. The lights in theroom were controlled from within the booth and also by a switch just atthe side of the door. A telephone on the table offered a connectionwith any part of the studio or with the city exchanges, so that anofficial of the company could be reached while viewing a picture.
As we entered I tried to study the different faces, but found it ahopeless task on account of the poor light. Kennedy took his place atthe little table, switching on the little shaded lamp and motioning forMackay to set the traveling bag so he could open it and view thecontents. Then Mackay took post at the door, a hand in his pocket, andI realized that the district attorney clasped a weapon beneath thecover of his clothing, and was prepared for trouble. I moved over to beready to help Kennedy if necessary. As Kennedy took his key, unlockingthe bag, it would have been possible to have heard the slightestmovement of a hand or foot, the faintest gasp of breath, so tense wasthe silence.
First Kennedy took out the various rolls of film. Looking up, he caughtthe face of the operator at the opening in the wall and handed them tohim one by one.
"Here are two sections of the opening of the story, scenes one tothirteen of 'The Black Terror' put together in order, but withoutsubtitles. One is printed from the negative of the head camera man,Watkins. The other is exactly the same action as taken by the otherphotographer. We will run both, but wait for my signal between eachpiece. Understand?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Now I am giving you two rolls which contain prints of the negativefrom both cameras of the action at the moment of Werner's death. Thoseare to be projected in the same way when I give you the signal.Following that there will be two very short pieces which show theattempt upon the life of Mr. Shirley. They are being rushed through thelaboratory at this moment and will be brought to you by the time we areready for them. Finally"--Kennedy paused and as he took the rolls ofnegative of the snake film I could see that he hesitated to allow themout of his hands even for a few moments--"here is some negative whichwill be my little climax. It--it is very valuable indeed, so please becareful."
"You--you want to project the NEGATIVE?" queried the operator.
"Yes. They tell me it can be done, even with negative as old andbrittle as this, if you are careful."
"I'll be careful, sir! You punch the button there once to stop and twoto go. I'll be ready in a moment." As he spoke he disappeared and soonwe heard the unmistakable hiss of the arcs in his machines.
Kennedy stooped and from the bag produced the little envelopes with thepocket knives and nail files, the set of envelopes with the samples ofblood, the piece of silk he had cut from the portiere at Tarrytown, thetiny bits he had cut from the towel found by me in the washroom of thisstudio, and a microscope--the last, I guessed, for
effect.
Around in the semidarkness I could see the faces as necks were cranedto watch us. Kennedy's deliberateness, his air of certainty, must havestruck terror home to some one person in the little audience. OftenKennedy depended upon hidden scientific instruments to catch the faintoutward signs of the emotions of his people in a seance of this sort,to allow the comparison of their reactions in the course of his reviewof the evidence, to give him what amounted to a very sure proof of theone person's guilt. The very absence of some such preparation indicatedto me the extent of his confidence.
At length he began his little lecture, for all the world as though thiswere one of his classes at the University, as though there were atstake some matter of chemical reaction.
"I need not tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that this is a highlyscientific age in which we live." His tones were leisurely,businesslike, cool. "Your own profession, the moving picture, with allits detail of photography and electricity, its blending of art anddrama and mechanics, is indicative of that, but"--a pause foremphasis--"it is of my own profession I wish to talk just now, thedetection and prevention of crime.
"Criminals as a whole were probably the very first class of society torealize the full benefit of modern science. Banks and businessinstitutions, the various detective and police forces, all grades andwalks of life have been put to it to keep abreast of the development ofscientific crime. So true has this been that it is a matter of commonbelief with many people that the hand of the law may be defied withimpunity, that justice may be cheated with absolute certainty, just solong as a guilty man or woman is sufficiently clever and sufficientlycareful.
"Fortunately, the real truth is quite the reverse. Science has extendeditself in many dimensions of space. With the use of a microscope, forinstance, a whole new world is opened up to the trained detective.
"Everyone knows now that the examination of hands and fingers is aninfallible aid in the identification of criminals and in the proof ofthe presence of a suspect at the scene of a crime--I refer tofingerprints, of course. But fingerprints are only one small detail inthis department of investigation. Our criminals know that gloves mustbe worn, or any smooth surface wiped so as to remove the prints. Inthat way they believe they cheat the microscope or the pocket lens.
"As a matter of fact few people have thought of another way of gainingevidence from the finger tips, but it is a method possible to thescientist, and is not only practicable but exceedingly effective. Intime it will be recognized by all specialists in crime. Now I refer tothe deposits under the finger nail.
"Indeed, it is surprising how many things find their way under the nailand into the corners of the cuticle." Kennedy indicated the files andpocket knives visible in the shaded square of light before him. "Thevalue of examining finger-nail deposits becomes evident when we realizethat everyone carries away in that fashion a sample of every bit ofmaterial he handles. To touch a piece of cloth, even lightly, willresult in the catching of a few of its fibers. Similarly, the fingernails will deposit either a small or large portion of theiraccumulation upon such things as the knife blades or files used toclean them; and there identification still is possible. Nothing in theworld is too infinitesimal for use as evidence beneath the microscope.
"In classifying these accumulations"--Kennedy paused and the silence inthe little room was death-like--"we may say that there are some whichare legitimate and some which are not. It is the latter which concernus now. The first day we were here at the studio, just four days agonow, and immediately following the murder of Miss Lamar, Mr. Jamesondiscovered a towel in the washroom on the second floor of the officebuilding. On that towel there were spots of Chinese yellow, make-up, asthough it had been used to wipe a face or hands by some actor oractress. Those spots were unimportant. There were others, however, ofan entirely different nature, together with the mark of blood and astain which showed that a hypodermic needle had been cleaned upon thetowel before it was thrown in the basket."
Kennedy leaned forward. His eyes traveled from face to face. "Thattowel was a dangerous clue." Now there was a new grim element in hisvoice. "That towel alone has given me the evidence on which I shallobtain a conviction in this case. To-day I let it be known that it wasin my possession and the guilty man or woman understood at once thevalue it would be to me. In order to gain additional clues I purposelygave the impression that I had yet to analyze either the spots or thetrace of blood. I wanted the towel stolen, and for that purpose Iplaced the bag containing it in a locker and left the locker unguarded.I coated the towel with a substance which would cause discomfort andalarm--itching salve--not with the idea that anyone would be foolishenough to go about scratching before my eyes, but with the idea ofmaking that person believe that such was my purpose and with the ideaof driving him--or her--to washing his hands at once and, more, withthe idea of forcing him or scaring him into cleaning his fingernails.
"I succeeded. On one of these files or knife blades I have found andidentified the fibers of that towel. I do not yet know the person, butI know the mark placed by Mackay on the outside of the little envelope,and when I tell Mackay the mark he will name the guilty person."
"Mr. Kennedy!" Manton spoke up, impulsively, "every towel in the studiois the same. I bought them all at the same time. The fibers would allbe alike. You have named seven people to me, including myself, aspossibly guilty of these--these murders. Your conclusions may be veryunjust--and may lead to a serious miscarriage of justice."
Kennedy was unperturbed. "This particular towel, in addition to theitching salve, was thoroughly impregnated with a colorless chemicalwhich changed the composition of the fibers in a way easilydistinguishing them from the others under the microscope. Do you see,Mr. Manton?"
The promoter had no more to say.
"Now what connection has the towel with the case? Simply this!" Kennedypicked up one of the tiny pieces he had cut out of it. "The poison usedto kill Miss Lamar was snake venom." He paused while a little murmurwent through his audience, the first sound I had detected. "These spotson the towel are antivenin. The venom itself is exceedingly dangerousto handle. The guilty man--or woman--took no chances, but inoculatedhimself with antivenin, protection against any chance action of thepoison. The marks on the towel are the marks made by the needle used bythat person in taking the inoculation.
"If you will follow me closely you will understand the significance ofthis. Miss Lamar was killed by the scratch of a needle secreted in theportieres through which she came, playing the scene in Mr. Phelps'slibrary. That I will prove to you when I show you the film. The nightfollowing her death some one broke into the room there at Tarrytown andremoved the needle. In removing the needle that person scratchedhimself, or herself. On the portieres I found some tiny spots ofblood." Kennedy paused to hold up the bit of heavy silk. "I analyzedthem and found that the blood serum had changed in character verysubtly. I demonstrated that the blood of the person who took the needlecontained antivenin, and if necessary I can prove the blood to comefrom the same individual who wiped the needle on the towel in thestudio."
Kennedy pressed the button before him, twice. "Now I want you to see,actually see Miss Lamar meet her death."
The lights went out, then the picture flashed on the screen before us,revealing the gloom and mystery of the opening scene of "The BlackTerror." We saw the play of the flashlight, finally the fingers andnext the arm of Stella as she parted the curtains. In the close-up wewitnessed the repetition of her appearance, since the film was simplyspliced together, not "matched" or trimmed. Following came all theaction down to the point where she collapsed over the figure of Werneron the floor. Before the camera man stopped, Manton rushed in and wasphotographed bending over her.
Kennedy's voice was dramatically tense, for not one of us but had beenprofoundly affected by the reproduction of the tragedy.
"Did you notice the terror in her face when she cried out? Was thatterror, really? If you were watching, you would have detected a slightflinch as she brushed her arm up a
gainst the silk. For just a momentshe was not acting. It was pain, not pretended terror, which made herscream. The devilish feature to this whole plot was the care taken tocover just that thing-her inevitable exclamation. Now watch closely asI signal the operator to run the same action from the other camera.Notice the gradual effect of the poison, how she forces herself to keepgoing without realization of the fact that death is at hand, how shecollapses finally through sheer inability to maintain her control ofherself a moment longer."
During the running of the second piece the tense silence in the roomwas ghastly. Who was the guilty person? Who possessed such amazingcallousness that an exhibition of this sort brought no outcry?
"Now"--Kennedy glanced around in the dim light, switched on between therunning of the different strips--"I'm going to project the banquetscenes and show you the manner of Werner's death."
Scene after scene of the banquet flashed before us. Here the cutter hadnot been sure just what Kennedy wanted and had spliced up everything.We saw the marvelous direction of Werner, who little realized that itwas to be his last few moments on earth, and we grasped the beauty andillusion of the set caused by the mirrors and the man's skill inplacing his people. Yet there was not a sound, because we knew thatthis was a tragedy, a grim episode in which there was no humanjustification whatever.
Werner rose at his place. He proposed his toast. He drank the contentsof his glass. Then, his expression changed to wonderment and from thatto fear and realization, and he dropped to the floor.
Kennedy's voice, interrupting, seemed to me to come from a greatdistance, so powerfully was I affected by the bit of film.
"The poison used to kill Mr. Werner was botulin toxin, selected becauseits effects could not be diagnosed as anything other than ordinary foodpoisoning. When we look at the print from the second camera's negativeyou will notice how quickly it acted. It was the pure toxin, placed inhis glass before the wine was poured."
Once more the unfortunate director's death was reproduced before us.
"Struck down," exclaimed Craig, "as though by some invisible lightningbolt, without mercy, without a chance, without the slightest bit ofcompunction! Why? I'll tell you. Because he suspected, in fact knew,who the guilty person was. Because he followed that person out toTarrytown the night the needle was removed from the portieres. Becausehe was a menace to that person's life!"
Kennedy turned to the operator. "Have those other scenes come down?"
"Yes, sir!"
"All right!" Kennedy faced the rest of us again. "There was, or ratheris, another person who suspects the identity of the criminal. To-day anattempt was made upon the life of Shirley. Shirley will not tell whomhe suspects because he has no definite proof, yet for the mere factthat he suspects he narrowly escaped the fate of Stella Lamar andWerner." Kennedy pressed the button. "Witness the effort to kill theman playing the part of the Black Terror."
The print was terribly bad, in appearance almost a "dupe," due to thespeed with which it had been made. Nevertheless the two very briefscenes rushed through for this showing were more absorbingly thrilling,more graphic than anything ever to be seen even in a news reel at amovie theater.
"Notice!" Kennedy exclaimed. "He puts his hand in one pocket, hefumbles, hesitates, then finds the bottle in the other. Whoever put thepoison in the vial replaced it in the wrong pocket. The film shows thatvery clearly. The camera proves that it was not an attempt at suicide.Yet the poison used was belladonna, selected because this victim hadpurchased some and because it would seem sure, therefore, that he hadcommitted suicide."
We sat in silence, listening, horrified.
"There is still another matter," Kennedy went on, after a moment. "Thefire in the negative vault this morning was incendiary. I have provedto the satisfaction of several of us that a bomb was constructed of wetphosphorus and old film and placed in the vault by trickery four daysago, the same day Stella Lamar was killed. Through a miscalculation thephosphorus was slow in drying and the fire did not occur until to-day.Thanks to that fact I have in my possession a bit of negative which themurderer very likely wished to have destroyed; in fact, I believe itsdestruction to be the motive in planning the fire in the vault." Hefaced the operator. "Ready to run the negative?"
"Yes, sir!"
Kennedy pressed the button and when the projection machine threw itspicture upon the screen I saw something such as I had never imaginedbefore. Everything was black which should have been white andeverything white which should have been black. The two extremes shadedinto each other in weird fashion. In fact it was uncanny to watch anegative projected and I followed, fascinated.
"This is a film made with the co-operation of Doctor Nagoya of theCastleton Institute and I am told by Mr. Manton that it is one of thefinest snake pictures ever made." Kennedy spoke fast, so that we wouldget the full benefit of his explanation and so that it would not benecessary to subject the negative to the wear and tear of the sprocketwheels in the projection machine again. "I am running this for you toshow you the action of the rattlesnake, whose venom was used to killMiss Lamar, and to give you an idea of the source of the murderer'sknowledge of snake poison."
At this moment Doctor Nagoya, whom I could barely recognize in theinverted photography, seized one of the rattlers. It was a close-up andwe could see the reptile dart out its forked tongue, seeking to get atthe hands of the Japanese, locked firmly about its neck. Then anotherman walked into the picture, holding a jar. At once the snake struck atthe glass. As it did so it was possible to see drops of the venomprojected into the jar.
Other details followed and there were views of other sorts and breedsof snakes, from the poisonous to the most harmless. The principalscene, however, had been the one showing the venom.
"Lights up!"
The operator threw the switch again, stopping the film and at the sametime lighting the projection room. Kennedy stepped forward and turnedto face us.
"There was this negative in the vaults." He spoke rapidly. "It bore acertain name on the film, as editor. Some one knew that proof of thepossession of this knowledge of snakes might prove a powerful link inthe chain against him. If that had been a positive instead of anegative, you would have recognized Doctor Nagoya's 'assistant.' Therewas a double motive in blowing that vault--to destroy the company andto protect himself. In fact, all the rest of the negative wasdestroyed. Only by chance I saved this piece--the very one that hewanted to destroy."
Everyone waited breathlessly for Kennedy's next move. Suddenly Kennedyflushed. I could see that he became genuinely angry.
"In this room," he exclaimed, "there sits the most unscrupulous,cold-blooded, inhuman being I have ever known. Yet he maintainssilence, believing still that he can defy the scientific evidence ofhis crimes. I have not yet mentioned, however, the real proof of hisguilt."
Kennedy picked up one of the little envelopes, one which contained ablood smear. "During the explosion this morning a number of you werecut by falling glass. You will remember that I bound up your cuts,carefully cleansing each one and wiping away the blood. That gave me asample of the blood of everyone but Miss Loring and Mr. Shirley.Subsequently, without their knowledge, I obtained a sample from each ofthem. Thus I have a specimen from everyone concerned, or possiblyconcerned in the murders."
He glanced about, but even now there was no telltale revelation.
"I have analyzed these and one shows that the person from whom Iobtained the sample has been inoculated with antivenin. The mark on theenvelope is the same as the mark on the envelope containing the towelfibers, a double proof. Furthermore, I am prepared to show that it isthe same blood as the blood upon the portiere." He faced me. All atonce his voice carried the sharpness of a whip. "Walter, relieve Mackayat the door and take his weapon. Let no one out. Mackay, come here!"
An instant later the district attorney leaned over. He glanced at themark indicated by Kennedy, then whispered a name. The next instantKennedy rose. "I thought so," he muttered.
Raising his voice, he ad
dressed all of us.
"Here is a man who thought crime so long that he believed he could getaway with--murder! Not only did he commit a second murder and plan athird to cover the first, but he planted evidence against nearly all ofyou. He dropped the ampulla in McGroarty's car to implicate any one offour people. He coolly stole a cigarette case to put it where it wouldbe found after the film fire and clinch suspicion.
"For all this, what justification has he had? Jealousy, jealousy of thenarrowest, most primitive, sort actuated him. Not only was he willingto kill Stella Lamar, but he sought to destroy every foot of negativein which she had appeared. He was jealous of her success, greater thanhis, jealous of her interest in other men, greater than her interest inhim. Her divorce was maneuvered directly by him simply because hethought it would hurt and humiliate her, and for no other reason.
"When nothing seemed to stop her, on her upward climb, when he realizedthat she was as ambitious as he was and that her position in thepicture world alone interested her, he sought by devious means, bysubtle schemes, by spreading dissatisfaction and encouragingdissension, to wreck the company which had made her. At the end--hekilled her--waiting craftily until she was at the very climax of herfinest piece of work, the opening scenes of 'The Black Terror.'"
There was bitterness in Kennedy's tones. "Before, I would not believethat a man--"
Suddenly the projection room was plunged into darkness. Some one hadpushed the wall switch close by me. I backed into the doorway, raisingmy weapon to resist any attempt to escape.
Almost at the same instant there were the sounds of a struggle. Kennedyhad dashed forward in the darkness, sure of the position of his man,unafraid.
A scream I recognized from the throat of Enid. I groped for the switch,but the operator in the booth anticipated me. In the first burst ofillumination I saw that Kennedy had forced his antagonist back over thefront row of chairs. Almost I heard the crack of the man's spine.
I caught a glimpse of the man's face and gasped at the murderous rageas he struggled and strove to break Kennedy's iron grip.
Enid was the first at Kennedy's side. With an expression I failed toanalyze until long afterward she sought to claw at the murderer'sunprotected features, twitching now in impotent fury.
"You wrote that note for her to meet you at the tearoom," Kennedymuttered, eyes narrowing grimly, "knowing she would be dead before thattime. You protected yourself against the poisoned needle in theportieres--but--your own blood convicts you--Millard!"
THE END
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