“I am deadly sure,” Reuter replied. “For all we know, they are listening in on this telephone wire.”
“They would have to be soothsayers to listen in on telephone kiosks in post offices on opposite sides of Berlin.”
“I would not be surprised if they were.”
“I have an idea,” said Arthur Curtis.
“No more ideas,” said Hans Reuter, and broke the connection.
Arthur Curtis worked his way slowly back to the office. Redoubling ordinary habits of caution, watching reflections in shop windows, changing trams repeatedly, stepping in and out of bakeries and cafes, he did not enter his building until he was one hundred percent sure that he was not being observed.
Pauline was sitting behind his desk, reading his mail.
“You should be home in bed. It’s late.”
“I’m not tired.”
“Don’t you have school tomorrow?”
“My mother’s friend is visiting. He’ll be gone at midnight.”
“Have you had your supper?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Here.” He handed Pauline a sweet bun he had picked up just in case and watched her tear into it like a timber wolf taking down a mule deer. And then the darnedest thing happened. Art Curtis was suddenly scared. Not for himself but for her, the silly kid hanging around. What if they did catch up with him and she was here? What would they do to her when they got done doing him?
“‘Flickers’ have been around for years,” Joseph Van Dorn protested.
Issac Bell had just concluded the story of Beiderbecke and Clyde Lynds and their Talking Pictures machine with the recommendation that the Van Dorn agency take up the job of protecting Lynds while he built a new machine in exchange for a share of the profits.
“Moving pictures won’t be mere ‘flickers’ anymore when sound makes them so visceral, they play on the emotions. The Talking Pictures machine is revolutionary.”
Van Dorn shrugged. “I attended a talking picture once in Cincinnati. They called it a ‘Kinetophone’ or some such, and the advertisement claimed that the songs followed in perfect unison the movements of the actors’ lips. But in fact the lips and words were at sixes and sevens, making it impossible to follow the story.”
“Synchronization is the crux of the problem.”
“Besides, there was the usual unnatural and discordant mechanical grate you hear from talking machines.”
“Amplification is another problem Lynds and Beiderbecke claim to have solved.”
“I’ll say it’s a problem. I attempted to hear an Actologue troupe in Detroit. One poor player had a feeble voice that was unable to penetrate the picture screen. Every word he uttered disappeared straight up into the fly loft.”
“You bought tickets,” said Bell. “You paid money to see these various attempts at talking pictures. That proves there’s a demand for this kind of attraction. But the way they’re going about is too expensive. Marion says a typical Actologue company consists of at least eight people, including the machine operator, piano player, singers, manager, and actors to imitate the parts behind the screen. That same film shown by Lynds’s Talking Pictures machines could be distributed to a thousand theaters at once. Film reels don’t eat, don’t sleep, and don’t demand a salary. It would be like a frying pan factory that doesn’t need to pay workmen because machines make frying pans automatically.”
Van Dorn, as hard-nosed and tightfisted a businessman as Bell had ever met, smiled at the thought of not having to pay labor. “You are very persuasive, Isaac. When you put it that way, you make me think he’s got something worth protecting.”
The savvy founder of the detective agency stroked his chin, ruminated silently, and fiddled absently with his candlestick telephone and his speaking tube. “But Professor Beiderbecke is dead. Can Clyde Lynds reproduce Talking Pictures without him?”
“Beiderbecke claimed Clyde is smart as a whip. The German Army believes he can. So do the German consuls.”
“I find it hard to believe the kaiser’s army is fighting this hard just for the money.”
“I agree,” said Bell. “They’re not businessmen. They’re soldiers. There’s something more to this.”
Van Dorn nodded vigorously. “Find out what,” he ordered. “Continue to watch developments at the New York consulate. I’ll nose around here in Washington.”
“Why not invite the German ambassador to lunch at the Cosmos Club?”
“I’ll do it tomorrow. But don’t get your hopes up. His Excellency is not likely to be informed of such a vicious operation, particularly if it’s a military scheme.”
“Will you give Art a free hand in Berlin?”
“Yes, yes, yes,” Van Dorn growled, reluctantly.
“I’d rather he didn’t waste time clearing each payment through you.”
Van Dorn grimaced. “O.K., dammit. You’re authorized to spend what you need.”
“Don’t worry. Art won’t squander a penny.”
“Just remember that while you’re trying to figure out what the Germans are up to, our valuable young genius is already in their crosshairs. Keep him safe— Where is he right now?”
“Lipsher’s got him.”
“Who’s Lipsher?”
“The PS boy who guarded Block on the ship. Turned out to be a good man in a pinch.” Bell stood up. “If you will clear it with Dagget’s managing director, I’ll continue under my insurance executive guise and spread the word that Dagget, Staples and Hitchcock is investing in Lynds’s invention. That such a staid old firm is interested ought to burnish its appeal.”
“Dagget, Staples and Hitchcock consorting with moving picture people?” Van Dorn laughed. “The founders will be spinning in their graves. But you’re right. Keep us out of it as long as you can. Best to not show our hand till we know who’s across the table.”
“And what he wants,” said Isaac Bell, grabbing his hat and charging out the door.
“Where you headed?”
“Union Station. I’m meeting Clyde in West Orange, New Jersey.”
“Thomas Edison’s laboratory? Hang on to the fillings in your teeth.”
19
Isaac Bell was surprised twice upon arriving at the red brick building that housed Thomas Edison’s laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey. It had never occurred to him how young Edison’s scientists would be. The laboratories were teeming with nattily dressed bright young fellows like Clyde Lynds. Nor had he expected Edison, with his reputation for hard bargaining, to have such a warm smile. It widened his full mouth engagingly and lighted his deep-set eyes.
Bell was not surprised, when a functionary led them into a soundproof phonograph-cylinder recording room, by the sight of the great man trying to hear music by biting down on the piano lid. Edison’s deafness was public knowledge. He stood up from the piano, dismissed the man playing it with a pleasant nod, and said in a loud but friendly voice, “Never go deaf. You’ll hate it. You must be Mr. Bell.”
Bell shook the strong hand Edison extended.
“And you, young fellow, must be Mr. Lynds, about whom Mr. Bell has telegraphed so glowingly. Shrewd move with the telegraph, Mr. Bell. I am hopeless on the telephone. All right, come in, sit down. Tell me what you’ve brought me.”