"Mr. Close," began Kennedy, "if you and Mr. Lawrence will sit
over here on this side of the room while Dr. Gregory and Mr.
Asche sit on the opposite side with Mr. Jameson in the middle, I
think both of you opposing parties will be better suited. For I
apprehend that at various stages in what I am about to say both
you, Mr. Close, and you, Dr. Gregory, will want to consult your
attorneys. That, of course, would be embarrassing, if not
impossible, should you be sitting near each other. Now, if we are
ready, I shall begin."

Kennedy placed a small leaden casket on the table of his lecture
hall. "In this casket," he commenced solemnly, "there is a
certain substance which I have recovered from the dust swept up
by a vacuum cleaner in the room of Mrs. Close."

One could feel the very air of the room surcharged with
excitement. Craig drew on a pair of gloves and carefully opened
the casket. With his thumb and forefinger he lifted out a glass
tube and held it gingerly at arm's length. My eyes were riveted
on it, for the bottom of the tube glowed with a dazzling point of
light.

Both Gregory and his attorney and Close and Lawrence whispered to
each other when the tube was displayed, as indeed they did
throughout the whole exhibition of Kennedy's evidence.

"No infernal machine was ever more subtle," said Craig, "than the
tube which I hold in my hand. The imagination of the most
sensational writer of fiction might well be thrilled with the