"Calm yourself, madame," interrupted Kennedy soothingly. "Calm
yourself. What's done is done. The truth must come out. Be calm.
Now," he continued, after the first storm of remorse had spent
itself and we were all outwardly composed again, "we have said
nothing whatever of the most mysterious feature of the case, the
firing of the shot. The murderer could have thrust the weapon
into the pocket or the folds of this coat"--here he drew forth
the automobile coat and held it aloft, displaying the bullet
hole--"and he or she (I will not say which) could have discharged
the pistol unseen. By removing and secreting the weapon afterward
one very important piece of evidence would be suppressed. This
person could have used such a cartridge as I have here, made with
smokeless powder, and the coat would have concealed the flash of
the shot very effectively. There would have been no smoke. But
neither this coat nor even a heavy blanket would have deadened
the report of the shot.

"What are we to think of that? Only one thing. I have often
wondered why the thing wasn't done before. In fact I have been
waiting for it to occur. There is an invention that makes it
almost possible to strike a man down with impunity in broad
daylight in any place where there is sufficient noise to cover up
a click, a slight 'Pouf!' and the whir of the bullet in the air.

"I refer to this little device of a Hartford inventor. I place it
over the muzzle of the thirty-two-calibre revolver I have so far
been using--so. Now, Mr. Jameson, if you will sit at that
typewriter over there and write--anything so long as you keep the
keys clicking. The inspector will start that imitation
stock-ticker in the corner. Now we are ready. I cover the pistol