“Now what connection has the towel with the case?  Simply this!” Kennedy picked up one of the tiny pieces he had cut out of it.  “The poison used to kill Miss Lamar was snake venom.”  He paused while a little murmur went through his audience, the first sound I had detected.  “These spots on the towel are antivenin.  The venom itself is exceedingly dangerous to handle.  The guilty man—­ or woman—­took no chances, but inoculated himself with antivenin, protection against any chance action of the poison.  The marks on the towel are the marks made by the needle used by that person in taking the inoculation.

“If you will follow me closely you will understand the significance of this.  Miss Lamar was killed by the scratch of a needle secreted in the portieres through which she came, playing the scene in Mr. Phelps’s library.  That I will prove to you when I show you the film.  The night following her death some one broke into the room there at Tarrytown and removed the needle.  In removing the needle that person scratched himself, or herself.  On the portieres I found some tiny spots of blood.”  Kennedy paused to hold up the bit of heavy silk.  “I analyzed them and found that the blood serum had changed in character very subtly.  I demonstrated that the blood of the person who took the needle contained antivenin, and if necessary I can prove the blood to come from the same individual who wiped the needle on the towel in the studio.”

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 Black Terror.”  We saw the play of the flashlight, finally the fingers and next the arm of Stella as she parted the curtains.  In the close-up we witnessed the repetition of her appearance, since the film was simply spliced together, not “matched” or trimmed.  Following came all the action down to the point where she collapsed over the figure of Werner on the floor.  Before the camera man stopped, Manton rushed in and was photographed bending over her.

Kennedy’s voice was dramatically tense, for not one of us but had been profoundly affected by the reproduction of the tragedy.

“Did you notice the terror in her face when she cried out?  Was that terror, really?  If you were watching, you would have detected a slight flinch as she brushed her arm up against the silk.  For just a moment she was not acting.  It was pain, not pretended terror, which made her scream.  The devilish feature to this whole plot was the care taken to cover just that thing-her inevitable exclamation.  Now watch closely as I signal the operator to run the same action from the other camera.  Notice the gradual effect of the poison, how she forces herself to keep going without realization of the fact that death is at hand, how she collapses finally through sheer inability to maintain her control of herself a moment longer.”