Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-08

" YES" Bra1nard SAID, b2Slde ner
. shaiF 1t it is xa life life St Whay
IL is now it would be hard
Z2r any one TO say. l haven't
s;a,ned it yet-but there is nothing
photographic about it-nor otherwise
MIA. -: commonly call mechanical.
4 think / have something better
than the product of Complete Illusions
Incorporated.
Then there was a commercial ele-
ment in it, thought Phyllis. 1t was
something with which to compete with
the picture trust.
well" said Aunt Relief Brainard,
coming out of a kind of hypnotic sill
ence, I'm glad you didn't let that
scene run any longer"
Shocked, are you, Aunt Rel?
didn't run half of it."
Half! Have you got the other half?"
"No-not now" Brainard walked
back toward his light keys. THE rest
OF it escaped"
Escaped! What are you talking
sbout?" Carol sprang from her chair.
Hes fooling us There is somebody
back there! I'm going to see!'
She ran across the room and swept
the white curtain aside. She revealed
only its own gossamer quality-and
the narrowing space behind, where
the walls converged to the unwinking
eye-preSumably a lens, that Phyllis
had seen.
Carol was checked for an instant
then laughed. "Oh, he has another
room beyond this, and brings his
action from there in here through
that lenS!'
Clever" replied Brainard smiling.
That's a lens, right enough; but
there's nothing Immediately behind it
but rather powerful apparatus for
producing light. Beyond that there is
an outside wall, II floors above the
street of Santa Monica, as you know.
What you saw was between the lens
and the curtain, as truly as it was
anywhere"
you're making a mystery for us,
Radley," Mr.. Norman commented. He
had been smoking quietly through it
all. He leaned forward now and laid
his cigar on a tray at hand. Are
you going to explain? You say the
people that acted that scene are dead
You say your scene is not produced
mechanically There is a gap between
those two statements that my intelli-
gence is unable to bridge"
Brainard turned to the light-switch
and flooded the room again to the full
as if to dispel all doubts of what was
reality.
We'll, sir" he replied presently,
smoking again easily, you are none of
you going to believe what say, at first
l knew it would be hard to convince
you. But try to credit the notion that
i am not lying when I say that what
you say here was something which no
living human being ever witnessed
even when it actually occurred-for it
Gid occur; something no mechanical
device ever recorded-for it was not
meant to be recorded; yet something
just as poignant-for, if you had been
able to bear tiff you hadn't inter-
rupted, you would have seen that that
young man killed the girl-killed here
there on the sand-and then killed
himself Their bodies were found there
on that shore together on June IA,
1932-nearly three years ago!"
His audience was silenced again. He
looked at them gravely.
What you saw" he finished at last
''waS the beginning of the Hanrady
murder, as it actually occurred Actual
ly, you understand! The girl was Viola
Hanrady-the man the so-called 'Wad-
dy' Delahantyi Remember"
His voice shook, despite his hard con-
troll: and the tremors in it went through
Phyllis Norman like Quiyering chill.
"Radley!" she cried, involuntarliy.
ats not true!"