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Page 95
"Were there rattlers in the film?"
"Altogether, I think. The little Jap was interesting, too.
Between scenes he told us all about the reptiles, and how their
poison--" Manton checked himself, confused. Was it because the
thought of poison reminded him of the two deaths so close to him,
or was it from some more potent twinge of conscience? "You'll see
it all in the film," he finished, lamely.
"I may keep these for a little bit?" Kennedy asked.
"Of course! I can have the two rolls printed and developed and
dry sometime this afternoon, if you wish."
"No, this will do very well."
Kennedy slipped a roll in each pocket, straining the cloth to get
them in. Manton opened a book on the little table, making an
entry of the delivery of the rolls and adding his own initials.
"I have to be very careful to avoid the loss of negative," he
told us. "Nothing can be taken out of here except on my own
personal order."
I thought that Manton was very frank and accommodating. Surely he
had made no effort to conceal his knowledge of this film made
with Doctor Nagoya, and he had even mentioned the poison of the
rattlesnakes. Though it had confused him for a brief moment, that
had not struck me as a very decisive indication of guilty
knowledge. After all, no one knew of the use of crotalin to kill
Stella Lamar except the murderer himself, and Kennedy and those
of us in his confidence. The murderer might not guess that
Kennedy had identified the venom. Yet if Manton were that man he
had covered his feelings wonderfully in telling us about the
film.
My thoughts strayed to the towel upstairs. Had an attempt been
made yet to steal it from the locker? It seemed to me that we
were losing too much time down here if we hoped to notice anyone
with itching hands.
I realized that Kennedy had been very clever in including all our
suspects in hearing at the time he revealed the importance of the
clue. Of the original nine listed by Mackay, Werner was dead and
Mrs. Manton had never entered the case. Enid we had assumed to be
the mysterious woman in Millard's divorce, however, and the other
six had all been upon the floor in contact with Kennedy. First
there was Marilyn, the woman. Then the five men in order had
displayed a lively interest in the towel--Shirley, Gordon,
Millard, Phelps, and Manton.
Kennedy's voice roused me from my reverie.
"Does this door lead through to the other vaults, Mr. Manton?"
"Yes." The promoter straightened, after replacing the records of
the negative. "I designed this system of storage myself and
superintended every detail of construction. It is--" He checked
himself with an exclamation, noticing that the door was open.
With a flush of anger he slammed it shut.
"I should think the connecting doors would be kept shut all the
time," Kennedy remarked. "In case of fire only one compartment
would be a loss."
"That's the idea exactly! That's why I was on the point of
swearing. The boys down here are getting lax and I'm going to
make trouble." Manton turned back and called to the boy outside.
"Where did you say Wagnalls went?"
"I don't know, sir! Sometimes he goes across to McCann's for a
cup of coffee, or maybe he went up to the printing department."
Manton faced us once more. "If you'll excuse me just a moment I'm
going to see who's responsible for this. Why," he sputtered, "if
you hadn't called me around the rack I wouldn't have noticed that
the door was open and then, if there had been a fire--I--I'll be
right back!"
As Manton stormed off Kennedy smiled slightly, then nodded for me
to follow. We passed through into the rooms for positive storage.
These in turn had fireproof connecting doors, all of which were
open. In each case Kennedy closed them. Eventually we emerged
into the main part of the basement through the farther vault
door. Nothing of a suspicious nature had caught our attention. I
guessed that Kennedy simply had wished to cover the carelessness
of the vault man in leaving the inner doors wide open.
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