go out on Long Island to examine the library at Travis's from which
the pictures were said to have been stolen. At the laboratory
Kennedy and I loaded ourselves with a large oblong black case
containing a camera and a tripod.
His examination of the looted library was minute, taking in the
window through which the thief had apparently entered, the cabinet
he had forced, and the situation in general. Finally Craig set
up his camera with most particular care and took several photographs
of the window, the cabinet, the doors, including the room from every
angle. Outside he snapped the two sides of the corner of the house
in which the library was situated. Partly by trolley and partly by
carriage we crossed the island to the south shore, and finally found
McLoughlin's farm, where we had no trouble in getting half a dozen
photographs of the porch and house. Altogether the proceedings
seemed tame to me, yet I knew from previous experience that Kennedy
had a deep laid purpose.
We parted in the city, to meet just before it was time to visit Miss
Ashton. Kennedy had evidently employed the interval in developing
his plates, for he now had ten or a dozen prints, all of exactly the
same size, mounted on stiff cardboard in a space with scales and
figures on all four sides. He saw me puzzling over them.
"Those are metric photographs such as Bertillon of Paris takes," he
explained. "By means of the scales and tables and other methods
that have been worked out we can determine from those pictures
distances and many other things almost as well as if we were on the
spot itself. Bertillon has cleared up many crimes with this help,
such as the mystery of the shooting in the Hotel Quai d'Orsay and
other cases. The metric photograph, I believe, will in time rank
with the portrait parle, finger prints, and the rest.
"For instance, in order to solve the riddle of a crime the
detective's first task is to study the scene topographically. Plans
and elevations of a room or house are made. The position of each
object is painstakingly noted. In addition, the all-seeing eye of
the camera is called into requisition. The plundered room is
photographed, as in this case. I might have done it by placing a
foot rule on a table and taking that in the picture, but a more
scientific and accurate method has been devised by Bertillon. His
camera lens is always used at a fixed height from the ground and
forms its image on the plate at an exact focus. The print made
from the negative is mounted on a card in a space of definite size,
along the edges of which a metric scale is printed. In the way he
has worked it out the distance between any two points in the picture
can be determined. With a topographical plan and a metric
photograph one can study a crime as a general studies the map of a
strange country. There were several peculiar things that I observed
to-day, and I have here an indelible record of the scene of the
crime. Preserved in this way it cannot be questioned.
"Now the photographs were in this cabinet. There are other cabinets,
but none of them has been disturbed. Therefore the thief must have
known just what he was after. The marks made in breaking the lock
were not those of a jimmy but of a screwdriver. No amazing command
of the resources of science is needed so far. All that is necessary
is a little scientific common sense, Walter.
"Now, how did the robber get in? All the windows and doors were
supposedly locked. It is alleged that a pane was cut from this
window at the side. It was, and the pieces were there to show it.
But take a glance at this outside photograph. To reach that window
even a tall man must have stood on a ladder or something. There
are no marks of a ladder or of any person in the soft soil under
the window. What is more, that window was cut from the inside. The
marks of the diamond which cut it plainly show that. Scientific
common sense again."
"Then it must have been some one in the house or at least some one
familiar with it?"I exclaimed.
Kennedy nodded. "One thing we have which the police greatly
neglect," he pursued, "a record. We have made some progress in
reconstructing the crime, as Bertillon calls it. If we only had
those Hanford pictures we should be all right."
We were now on our way to see Miss Ashton at headquarters, and as
we rode downtown I tried to reason out the case. Had it really
been a put-up job? Was Travis himself faking, and was the robbery
a "plant" by which he might forestall exposure of what had become
public property in the hands of another, no longer disposed to
conceal it? Or was it after all the last desperate blow of the
Boss?
The whole thing began to assume a suspicious look in my mind.
Although Kennedy seemed to have made little real progress, I felt
that, far from aiding Travis, it made things darker. There was
nothing but his unsupported word that he had not visited the Boss
subsequent to the nominating convention. He admitted having done
so before the Reform League came into existence. Besides it
seemed tacitly understood that both the Boss and Cadwalader Brown
acquiesced in the sworn statement of the man who said he had made
the pictures. Added to that the mere existence of the actual
pictures themselves was a graphic clincher to the story. Personally,
if I had been in Kennedy's place I think I should have taken
advantage of the proviso in the compact with Travis to back out
gracefully. Kennedy, however, now started on the case, hung to it
tenaciously.
Miss Ashton was waiting for us at the press bureau. Her desk was
at the middle of one end of the room in which, if she could keep
an eye on her office force, the office force also could keep an eye
on her.
Kennedy had apparently taken in the arrangement during our morning
visit, for he set to work immediately. The side of the room toward
the office of Travis and Bennett presented an expanse of blank wall.
With a mallet he quickly knocked a hole in the rough plaster, just
above the baseboard about the room. The hole did not penetrate
quite through to the other side. In it he placed a round disc of
vulcanised rubber, with insulated wires leading down back of the
baseboard, then out underneath it, and under the carpet. Some
plaster quickly closed up the cavity in the wall, and he left it to
dry.
Next he led the wires under the carpet to Miss Ashton's desk.
There they ended, under the carpet and a rug, eighteen or twenty
huge coils several feet in diameter disposed in such a way as to
attract no attention by a curious foot on the carpet which covered
them.
"That is all, Miss Ashton," he said as we watched for his next
move. "I shall want to see you early to-morrow, and, might I ask
you to be sure to wear that hat which you have on?"
It was a very becoming hat, but Kennedy's tone clearly indicated
that it was not his taste in inverted basket millinery that prompted
the request. She promised, smiling, for even a suffragette may like
pretty hats.
Craig had still to see Travis and report on his work. The candidate
was waiting anxiously at his hotel after a big political mass
meeting on the East Side, at which capitalism and the bosses had
been hissed to the echo, if that is possible.
"'What success?" inquired Travis eagerly.
"I'm afraid," replied Kennedy, and the candidate's face fell at
the tone, "I'm afraid you will have to meet them, for the present.
The time limit will expire to-morrow, and I understand Hanford
is coming up for a final answer. We must have copies of those
photographs, even if we have to pay for them. There seems to be
no other way."
Travis sank back in his chair and regarded Kennedy hopelessly. He
was actually pale. "you - you don't mean to say that there is no
other way, that I'll have to admit even before Bennett - and others
that I'm in bad?"
"I wouldn't put it that way," said Kennedy mercilessly, I thought.
"It is that way," Travis asserted almost fiercely. "Why, we could
have done that anyhow. No, no, - I don't mean that. Pardon me.
I'm upset by this. Go ahead," he sighed.
"You will direct Bennett to make the best terms he can with Hanford
when he comes up to-morrow. Have him arrange the details of payment
and then rush the best copies of the photographs to me."
Travis seemed crushed.
We met Miss Ashton the following morning entering her office.
Kennedy handed her a package, and in a few words, which I did not
hear, explained what he wanted, promising to call again later.
When we called, the girls and other clerks had arrived, and the
office was a hive of industry in the rush of winding up the
campaign. Typewriters were clicking, clippings were being snipped
out of a huge stack of newspapers and pasted into large scrap-books,
circulars were being folded and made ready to mail for the final
appeal. The room was indeed crowded, and I felt that there was no
doubt, as Kennedy had said, that nothing much could go on there
unobserved by any one to whose interest it was to see it.
Miss Ashton was sitting at her desk with her hat on directing the
work. "It works," she remarked enigmatically to Kennedy.
"Good," he replied. "I merely dropped in to be sure. Now if
anything of interest happens, Miss Ashton, I wish you would let
me know immediately. I must not be seen up here, but I shall be
waiting downstairs in the corridor of the building. My next move
depends entirely on what you have to report."
Downstairs Craig waited with growing impatience. We stood in an
angle in which we could see without being readily seen, and our
impatience was not diminished by seeing Hanford enter the elevator.
I think that Miss Ashton would have made an excellent woman
detective, that is, on a case in which her personal feelings were
not involved as they were here. She was pale and agitated as she
appeared in the corridor, and Kennedy hurried toward her.
"I can't believe it. I won't believe it," she managed to say.
"Tell me, what happened?" urged Kennedy soothingly.
"Oh, Mr. Kennedy, why did you ask me to do this?" she reproached.
"I would almost rather not have known it at all."
"Believe me, Miss Ashton," said Kennedy, "you ought to know. It is
on you that I depend most. We saw Hanford go up. What occurred?"
She was still pale, and replied nervously, "Mr. Bennett came in
about quarter to ten. He stopped to talk to me and looked about
the room curiously. Do you know, I felt very uncomfortable for a
time. Then he locked the door leading from the press bureau to
his office, and left word that he was not to be disturbed. A few
minutes later a man called."
"Yes, yes," prompted Kennedy. "Hanford, no doubt."
She was racing on breathlessly, scarcely giving one a chance to
inquire how she had learned so much.
"Why," she cried with a sort of defiant ring in her tone, "Mr.
Travis is going to buy those pictures after all. And the worst of
it is that I met him in the hall coming in as I was coming down here,
and he tried to act toward me in the same old way and that after all
I know now about him. They have fixed it all up, Mr. Bennett acting
for Mr. Travis, and this Mr. Hanford. They are even going to ask me
to carry the money in a sealed envelope to the studio of this fellow
Hanford, to be given to a third person who will be there at two
o'clock this afternoon."
"You, Miss Ashton?" inquired Kennedy, a light breaking on his face
as if at last he saw something.
"Yes, I," she repeated. "Hanford insisted that it was part of the
compact. They - they haven't asked me openly yet to be the means
of carrying out their dirty deals, but when they do, I won't - "
"Miss Ashton," remonstrated Kennedy, "I beg you to be calm. I had
no idea you would take it like this, no idea. Please, please.
Walter, you will excuse us if we take a turn down the corridor
and out in the air. This is most extraordinary."
For five or ten minutes Kennedy and Miss Ashton appeared to be
discussing the new turn of events earnestly, while I waited
impatiently. As they approached again she seemed calmer, but I
heard her say, "I hope you're right. I'm all broken up by it. I'm
ready to resign. My faith in human nature is shaken. No, I won't
expose Wesley Travis for his sake. It cuts me to have to admit it,
but Cadwalader used always to say that every man has his price. I
am afraid this will do great harm to the cause of reform and through
it to the woman suffrage cause which cast its lot with this party.
I - I can hardly believe"
Kennedy was still looking earnestly at her. "Miss Ashton," he
implored, "believe nothing. Remember one of the first rules of
politics is loyalty. Wait until "
"Wait?" she echoed. "How can I? I hate Wesley Travis for giving
in - more than I hate Cadwalader Brown for his cynical disregard of
honesty in others."
She bit her lip at thus betraying her feelings, but what she had
heard had evidently affected her deeply. It was as though the feet
of her idol had turned to clay. Nevertheless it was evident that
she was coming to look on it more as she would if she were an
outsider.
"Just think it over," urged Kennedy. "They won't ask you right
away. Don't do anything rash. Suspend judgment. You won't regret
it."
Craig's next problem seemed to be to transfer the scene of his
operations to Hanford's studio. He was apparently doing some rapid
thinking as we walked uptown after leaving Miss Ashton, and I did
not venture to question him on what had occurred when it was so
evident that everything depended on being prepared for what was
still to occur.
Hanford was out. That seemed to please Kennedy, for with a
brightening face, which told more surely than words that he saw his
way more and more clearly, he asked me to visit the agent and hire
the vacant office next to the studio while he went uptown to
complete his arrangements for the final step.
I had completed my part and was waiting in the empty room when he
returned. He lost no time in getting to work, and it seemed to me
as I watched him curiously in silence that he was repeating what
he had already done at the Travis headquarters. He was boring into
the wall, only this time he did it much more carefully, and it was
evident that if he intended putting anything into this cavity it
must be pretty large. The hole was square, and as I bent over I
could see that he had cut through the plaster and laths all the way
to the wallpaper on the other side, though he was careful to leave
that intact. Then he set up a square black box in the cavity,
carefully poising it and making measurements that told of the exact
location of its centre with reference to the partitions and walls.
A skeleton key took us into Hanford's well-lighted but now empty
studio. For Miss Ashton's sake I wished that the photographs had
been there. I am sure Kennedy would have found slight compunction
in a larceny of them, if they had been. It was something entirely
different that he had in mind now, however, and he was working
quickly for fear of discovery. By his measurements I guessed that
he was calculating as nearly as possible the centre of the box
which he had placed in the hole in the wall on the other side of
the dark wallpaper. When he had quite satisfied himself he took a
fine pencil from his pocket and made a light cross on the paper to
indicate it. The dot fell to the left of a large calendar hanging
on the wall.
Kennedy's appeal to Margaret Ashton had evidently had its effect,
for when we saw her a few moments after these mysterious preparations
she had overcome her emotion.
"They have asked me to carry a note to Mr. Hanford's studio," she
said quietly, "and without letting them know that I know anything
about it I have agreed to do so."
"Miss Ashton," said Kennedy, greatly relieved, "you're a trump."
"No," she replied, smiling faintly, "I'm just feminine enough to
be curious."
Craig shook his head, but did not dispute the point. "After you
have handed the envelope to the person, whoever it may be, in
Hanford's studio, wait until he does something - er - suspicious.
Meanwhile look at the wall on the side toward the next vacant office.
To the left of the big calendar you will see a light pencil mark, a
cross. Somehow you must contrive to get near it, but don't stand in
front of it. Then if anything happens stick this little number 10
needle in the wall right at the intersection of the cross. Withdraw
it quickly, count fifteen, then put this little sticker over the
cross, and get out as best you can, though we shan't be far away if
you should need us. That's all."
We did not accompany her to the studio for fear of being observed,
but waited impatiently in the next office. We could hear nothing
of what was said, but when a door shut and it was evident that she
had gone, Kennedy quickly removed something from the box in the wall
covered with a black cloth.
As soon as it was safe Kennedy had sent me posting after her to
secure copies of the incriminating photographs which were to be
carried by her from the studio, while he remained to see who came
out. I thought a change had come over her as she handed me the
package with the request that I carry it to Mr. Bennett and get them
from him.
The first inkling I had that Kennedy had at last been able to trace
back something in the mysterious doings of the past two days came
the following evening, when Craig remarked casually that he would
like to have me call on Billy McLoughlin if I had no engagement.
I replied that I had none and managed to squirm out of the one I
really had.
The Boss's office was full of politicians, for it was the eve of
"dough day," when the purse strings were loosed and a flood of
potent argument poured forth to turn the tide of election. Hanford
was there with the other ward heelers.
"Mr. McLoughlin," began Kennedy quietly, when we were seated alone
with Hanford in the little sanctum of the Boss, "you will pardon me
if I seem a little slow in coming to the business that has brought
me here to-night. First of all, I may say, and you, Hanford, being
a photographer will appreciate it, that ever since the days of
Daguerre photography has been regarded as the one infallible means
of portraying faithfully any object, scene, or action. Indeed a
photograph is admitted in court as irrefutable evidence. For when
everything else fails, a picture made through the photographic lens
almost invariably turns the tide. However, such a picture upon
which the fate of an important case may rest should be subjected
to critical examination for it is an established fact that a
photograph may be made as untruthful as it may be reliable.
Combination photographs change entirely the character of the initial
negative and have been made for the past fifty years. The earliest,
simplest, and most harmless photographic deception is the printing
of clouds into a bare sky. But the retoucher with his pencil and
etching tool to-day is very skilful. A workman of ordinary skill
can introduce a person taken in a studio into an open-air scene well
blended and in complete harmony without a visible trace of falsity.
"I need say nothing of how one head can be put on another body in
a picture, nor need I say what a double exposure will do. There
is almost no limit to the changes that may be wrought in form and
feature. It is possible to represent a person crossing Broadway
or walking on Riverside Drive, places he may never have visited.
Thus a person charged with an offence may be able to prove an
alibi by the aid of a skilfully prepared combination photograph.
"Where, then, can photography be considered as irrefutable evidence?
The realism may convince all, will convince all, except the expert
and the initiated after careful study. A shrewd judge will insist
that in every case the negative be submitted and examined for
possible alterations by a clever manipulator."
Kennedy bent his gaze on McLoughlin. "Now, I do not accuse you,
sir, of anything. But a photograph has come into the possession of
Mr. Travis in which he is represented as standing on the steps of
your house with yourself and Mr. Cadwalader Brown. He and Mr. Brown
are in poses that show the utmost friendliness. I do not hesitate
to say that that was originally a photograph of yourself, Mr. Brown,
and your own candidate. It is a pretty raw deal, a fake in which
Travis has been substituted by very excellent photographic forgery."
McLoughlin motioned to Hanford to reply. "A fake?" repeated the
latter contemptuously. "How about the affidavits? There's no
negative. You've got to prove that the original print stolen from
Travis, we'll say, is a fake. You can't do it."
"September 19th was the date alleged, I believe?" asked Kennedy
quietly, laying down the bundle of metric photographs and the
alleged photographs of Travis. He was pointing to a shadow of a
gable on the house as it showed in the metric photographs and the
others.
"You see that shadow of the gable? Perhaps you never heard of it,
Hanford, but it is possible to tell the exact time at which a
photograph was taken from a study of the shadows. It is possible
in principle and practice and can be trusted. Almost any scientist
may be called on to bear testimony in court nowadays, but you would
say the astronomer is one of the least likely. Well, the shadow in
this picture will prove an alibi for some one.
"Notice. It is seen very prominently to the right, and its exact
location on the house is an easy matter. You could almost use the
metric photograph for that. The identification of the gable casting
the shadow is easy. To be exact it is 19.62 feet high. The shadow
is 14.23 feet down, 13.10 feet east, and 3.43 feet north. You see
I am exact. I have to be. In one minute it moved 0.080 feet upward,
0.053 feet to the right, and 0.096 feet in its apparent path. It
passes the width of a weatherboard, 0.37 foot, in four minutes and
thirty-seven seconds."
Kennedy was talking rapidly of data which he had derived from his
metric photograph, from plumb line, level, compass, and tape,
astronomical triangle, vertices, zenith, pole and sun, declination,
azimuth, solar time, parallactic angles, refraction, and a dozen
bewildering terms.
"In spherical trigonometry," he concluded, "to solve the problem
three elements must be known. I knew four. Therefore I could take
each of the known, treat it as unknown, and have four ways to check
my result. I find that the time might have been either three
o'clock, twenty-one minutes and twelve seconds, in the afternoon, or
3:21 :31, or 3 :21 :29, or 3:21 :33. The average is 3 :21 :26, and
there can therefore be no appreciable error except for a few seconds.
For that date must have been one of two days, either May 22 or
July 22. Between these two dates we must decide on evidence other
than the shadow. It must have been in May, as the immature condition
of the foliage shows. But even if it had been in July, that is far
from being September. The matter of the year I have also settled.
Weather conditions, I find, were favourable on all=20these dates except
that in September. I can really answer, with an assurance and
accuracy superior to that of the photographer himself - even if he
were honest - as to the real date. The real picture, aside from
being doctored, was actually taken last May. Science is not fallible,
but exact in this matter."
Kennedy had scored a palpable hit. McLaughlin and Hanford were
speechless. Still Craig hurried on.
"But, you may ask, how about the automobile picture? That also is
an unblushing fake. Of course I must prove that. In the first
place, you know that the general public has come to recognise
the distortion of a photograph as denoting speed. A picture of a
car in a race that doesn't lean is rejected - people demand to see
speed, speed, more speed even in pictures. Distortion does indeed
show speed, but that, too, can be faked.
"Hanford knows that the image is projected upside down by the lens
on the plate, and that the bottom of the picture is taken before
the top. The camera mechanism admits light, which makes the picture,
in the manner of a roller blind curtain. The slit travels from the
top to the bottom and the image on the plate being projected upside
down, the bottom of the object appears on the top of the plate. For
instance, the wheels are taken before the head of the driver. If
the car is moving quickly the image moves on the plate and each
successive part is taken a little in advance of the last. The whole
leans forward. By widening the slit and slowing the speed of the
shutter, there is more distortion.