"Who—who do you want present in the projection room?"
"Mr. Phelps, Mr. Millard, and—yourself, Mr. Manton. Miss Loring and
Miss Faye. Mr. Gordon. Anyone else who wishes, if there is room."
"Phelps, Millard, Gordon, and the two girls are inside already."
"Good! We will start at once."
Manton turned, to lead the way in. At that moment there was a call from the yard. We stopped, looking up. It was Shirley.
"Wait just a minute," he cried. He was so weak that the two extra men who were helping him virtually supported his weight. On his face was a look of desperate determination. "I—I must see this too!" he gasped.
XXXII
CAMERA EVIDENCE
Coming in from the bright light of open day, the projection room seemed a gloomy, forbidding place, certainly well calculated to break down the reserve of perhaps the cleverest criminal ever pitting his skill against the science of Craig Kennedy.
It was a small room, long and not so wide, with a comparatively low ceiling. In order to obviate eye strain the walls were painted somberly and there were no light colors in evidence except for a nearly square patch of white at the farther end, the screen upon which the pictures were projected. The illumination was very dim. This was so that there would be no great contrast between the light reflected from the images cast upon the screen during pictures and the illumination in the room itself between reels; again designed to prevent strain upon the eyes of the employees whose work was the constant examination of film in various stages of its assembly.