“No, up on the floor.”

“You’ll be there fifteen minutes to half an hour ahead of me.  I hope there is no way for anyone to tip him off so he can escape.”

“We’ll stop him if he attempts it.”

“Good!”

The courtyard of the studio of Manton Pictures, Incorporated, was about the same as upon the occasions of our previous visits except that I detected a larger number of cars parked in the inclosure, including a number of very fine ones.  Also, it seemed to me that there was a greater absence of life than usual, as though something of particular interest had taken everyone inside the buildings.

The gateman informed us that Werner was working the large studio.  We made our way up through the structure containing the dressing rooms and found the proper door without difficulty.  When we passed through under the big glass roof we grasped the reason for the lack of interest in the other departments about the quadrangle.  Here everyone was gathered to watch the taking of the banquet scene for “The Black Terror.”  The huge set was illuminated brightly, and packed, thronged with people.

It was a marvelous set in many ways.  To carry out the illusion of size and to aid in the deceptive additional length given by the mirrors at the farther end, Werner had decided against the usual one large table arranged horseshoe-like, but had substituted instead a great number of individual smaller tables, about which he had grouped the various guests.  The placing of those nearest the mirrors had been so arranged as to give no double images, thus betraying the trick.  The waiters, all the characters who walked about, were kept near the front toward the cameras for the same reason.  It seemed as if the banquet hall was at least twice its actual size.

I saw that Millard had arrived ahead of us.  Either the changing of the scenes in his script to fit Enid had not taken him very long or else the photographing of this particular bit of action had proved sufficiently fascinating to draw him away from his work.  I wondered at first if he had come to the studio to use his office here, an infrequent happening, from Manton’s account.  Then I realized that he was in evening dress.  Without doubt he planned to play a minor part in the banquet.  His presence was no accident.

Then I picked out Manton himself from our point of observation in a quiet corner selected by Kennedy for that purpose.  It was evident that the promoter had cleared up his business at the office rapidly since we had left him there to go to our quarters on the Heights and had departed immediately from the latter place so as to precede the District Attorney here.