Tulkington
would be unpleasant.'
"'Go as far as you like, Lawrence. You know what the marriage
will mean to me. It will settle my debts to you and all the
rest.'
"'I'll see what I can do, Close. He'll be back in a moment.'"
Close's face was livid. "It's a pack of lies!" he shouted,
advancing toward Kennedy, "a pack of lies! You are a fakir and a
blackmailer. I'll have you in jail for this, by God--and you too,
Gregory."
"One moment, please," said Kennedy calmly. "Mr. Lawrence, will
you be so kind as to reach behind your chair? What do you find?"
Lawrence lifted up the plain black box and with it he pulled up
the wires which I had so carefully concealed in the cracks of the
floor.
"That," said Kennedy, "is a little instrument called the
microphone. Its chief merit lies in the fact that it will magnify
a sound sixteen hundred times, and carry it to any given point
where you wish to place the receiver. Originally this device was
invented for the aid of the deaf, but I see no reason why it
should not be used to aid the law. One needn't eavesdrop at the
keyhole with this little instrument about. Inside that box there
is nothing but a series of plugs from which wires, much finer
than a thread, are stretched taut. Yet a fly walking near it will
make a noise as loud as a draft-horse.
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