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Page 117
First Kennedy took out the various rolls of film. Looking up, he
caught the face of the operator at the opening in the wall and
handed them to him one by one.
"Here are two sections of the opening of the story, scenes one to
thirteen of 'The Black Terror' put together in order, but without
subtitles. One is printed from the negative of the head camera
man, Watkins. The other is exactly the same action as taken by
the other photographer. We will run both, but wait for my signal
between each piece. Understand?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Now I am giving you two rolls which contain prints of the
negative from both cameras of the action at the moment of
Werner's death. Those are to be projected in the same way when I
give you the signal. Following that there will be two very short
pieces which show the attempt upon the life of Mr. Shirley. They
are being rushed through the laboratory at this moment and will
be brought to you by the time we are ready for them. Finally"--
Kennedy paused and as he took the rolls of negative of the snake
film I could see that he hesitated to allow them out of his hands
even for a few moments--"here is some negative which will be my
little climax. It--it is very valuable indeed, so please be
careful."
"You--you want to project the NEGATIVE?" queried the operator.
"Yes. They tell me it can be done, even with negative as old and
brittle as this, if you are careful."
"I'll be careful, sir! You punch the button there once to stop
and two to go. I'll be ready in a moment." As he spoke he
disappeared and soon we heard the unmistakable hiss of the arcs
in his machines.
Kennedy stooped and from the bag produced the little envelopes
with the pocket knives and nail files, the set of envelopes with
the samples of blood, the piece of silk he had cut from the
portiere at Tarrytown, the tiny bits he had cut from the towel
found by me in the washroom of this studio, and a microscope--the
last, I guessed, for effect.
Around in the semidarkness I could see the faces as necks were
craned to watch us. Kennedy's deliberateness, his air of
certainty, must have struck terror home to some one person in the
little audience. Often Kennedy depended upon hidden scientific
instruments to catch the faint outward 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 review of the evidence, to
give him what amounted to a very sure proof of the one person's
guilt. The very absence of some such preparation indicated to me
the extent of his confidence.
At length he began his little lecture, for all the world as
though this were one of his classes at the University, as though
there were at stake some matter of chemical reaction.
"I need not tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that this is a highly
scientific age in which we live." His tones were leisurely,
businesslike, cool. "Your own profession, the moving picture,
with all its detail of photography and electricity, its blending
of art and drama and mechanics, is indicative of that, but"--a
pause for emphasis--"it is of my own profession I wish to talk
just now, the detection and prevention of crime.
"Criminals as a whole were probably the very first class of
society to realize the full benefit of modern science. Banks and
business institutions, the various detective and police forces,
all grades and walks of life have been put to it to keep abreast
of the development of scientific crime. So true has this been
that it is a matter of common belief with many people that the
hand of the law may be defied with impunity, that justice may be
cheated with absolute certainty, just so long as a guilty man or
woman is sufficiently clever and sufficiently careful.
"Fortunately, the real truth is quite the reverse. Science has
extended itself in many dimensions of space. With the use of a
microscope, for instance, a whole new world is opened up to the
trained detective.
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