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Page 110
Under the lights the entire set sparkled with a tawdry garishness
apt to fool those uninitiated into the secrets of photography. On
the screen, colors which now seemed dull and flat would take on a
soft richness and a delicacy characteristic of the society in
which Kauf's characters were supposed to move. Obviously fragile
scenery would seem as heavy and substantial as the walls and
beams of the finest old mansion. Even the inferior materials in
the gowns of most of the girls would photograph as well as the
most expensive silk; in fact, by long experience, many of the
extra girls had learned to counterfeit the latest fashions at a
cost ridiculous by comparison.
Kennedy approached Kauf, then returned to us.
"He asks us to wait until he gets this one big scene. It's the
climax of the picture, really, the unmasking of the 'Black
Terror.' If we interrupt now he loses the result of half a day of
preparation."
"He may lose more than that!" muttered Mackay; and I wondered
just whom the district attorney suspected.
"Is everyone here?" I asked. "All seven?"
Gordon and Shirley, of the men, and Marilyn and Enid, of course,
were out on the floor of the supposed ballroom. Gordon I
recognized because I remembered that he was to wear the garb of a
monk. Marilyn was easily picked out, although the vivacity she
assumed seemed unnatural now that we knew her as well as we did.
Her costume was a glorious Yama Yama creation, of a faint yellow
which would photograph dazzling white, revealing trim stockinged
ankles and slender bare arms, framing face and eyes dancing with
merriment and maliciousness. Unquestionably she was the prettiest
girl beneath the arcs, never to be suspected as the woman who had
braved the terrors of a film fire to rescue the man she loved.
Enid was stately and serene in the gown of Marie Antoinette. In
the bright glare her features took on a round innocence and she
was as successful in portraying sweetness as Marilyn was in the
simulation of the mocking evil of the vampire.
Shirley interested me the most, however. I wondered if Kennedy
still eliminated him in guessing at the identity of the criminal.
I called to mind the heavy man's presence in the basement at the
time of the explosion and McGroarty's information that he had
been hanging about that part of the studio for some time
previously. Some one had planted a cigarette case and stub to
implicate Gordon, according to Kennedy's theory. Shirley
certainly had had opportunity to steal the towel from the locker
as well as to point suspicion toward the leading man.
In the midst of my reverie Shirley approached and passed us. He
was in the garb of Mephisto. Like the others, he had not yet
masked his face. A peculiar brightness in his eyes struck me and
I nudged Kennedy.
"Belladonna," Kennedy explained when he was beyond earshot.
"Oh!" I remembered. "Enid told him to use it."
"What?"
I repeated the conversation as near as I could reconstruct it.
"H-m! That's a new cure for smoke-burned eyes; no cure at all."
I was unable to get any more out of Kennedy, however.
Manton I detected in the background with Phelps. The two men were
arguing, as always, and it was evident that the banker was
accomplishing nothing by this constant hanging about the studio.
Where previously my sympathy had been with Phelps entirely, now I
realized that the promoter had won me. Indeed, Manton's interest
in all the affairs of picture making at this plant had been far
too sincere and earnest to permit the belief that he was seeking
to wreck the company or to double-cross his backer.
Millard entered the studio as I glanced about for him. He handed
some sheets to Kauf, then turned to leave. I attracted Kennedy's
attention.
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