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Page 120
Kennedy's voice, interrupting, seemed to me to come from a great
distance, so powerfully was I affected by the bit of film.
"The poison used to kill Mr. Werner was botulin toxin, selected
because its effects could not be diagnosed as anything other than
ordinary food poisoning. When we look at the print from the
second camera's negative you will notice how quickly it acted. It
was the pure toxin, placed in his 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
lightning bolt, without mercy, without a chance, without the
slightest bit of compunction! Why? I'll tell you. Because he
suspected, in fact knew, who the guilty person was. Because he
followed that person out to Tarrytown the night the needle was
removed from the portieres. Because he 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
rather is, another person who suspects the identity of the
criminal. To-day an attempt was made upon the life of Shirley.
Shirley will not tell whom he suspects because he has no definite
proof, yet for the mere fact that he suspects he narrowly escaped
the fate of Stella Lamar and Werner." Kennedy pressed the button.
"Witness the effort to kill the man playing the part of the Black
Terror."
The print was terribly bad, in appearance almost a "dupe," due to
the speed with which it had been made. Nevertheless the two very
brief scenes rushed through for this showing were more
absorbingly thrilling, more graphic than anything ever to be seen
even in a news reel at a movie theater.
"Notice!" Kennedy exclaimed. "He puts his hand in one pocket, he
fumbles, hesitates, then finds the bottle in the other. Whoever
put the poison in the vial replaced it in the wrong pocket. The
film shows that very clearly. The camera proves that it was not
an attempt at suicide. Yet the poison used was belladonna,
selected because this victim had purchased some and because it
would seem sure, therefore, that he had committed suicide."
We sat in silence, listening, horrified.
"There is still another matter," Kennedy went on, after a moment.
"The fire in the negative vault this morning was incendiary. I
have proved to the satisfaction of several of us that a bomb was
constructed of wet phosphorus and old film and placed in the
vault by trickery four days ago, the same day Stella Lamar was
killed. Through a miscalculation the phosphorus 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 the murderer
very likely wished to have destroyed; in fact, I believe its
destruction to be the motive in planning the fire in the vault."
He faced the operator. "Ready to run the negative?"
"Yes, sir!"
Kennedy pressed the button and when the projection machine threw
its picture upon the screen I saw something such as I had never
imagined before. Everything was black which should have been
white and everything white which should have been black. The two
extremes shaded into each other in weird fashion. In fact it was
uncanny to watch a negative projected and I followed, fascinated.
"This is a film made with the co-operation of Doctor Nagoya of
the Castleton Institute and I am told by Mr. Manton that it is
one of the finest snake pictures ever made." Kennedy spoke fast,
so that we would get the full benefit of his explanation and so
that it would not be necessary to subject the negative to the
wear and tear of the sprocket wheels in the projection machine
again. "I am running this for you to show you the action of the
rattlesnake, whose venom was used to kill Miss Lamar, and to give
you an idea of the source of the murderer's knowledge of snake
poison."
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