Maurice Leblanc

“ On listening attentively, I seemed on several occasions to recognize Massignac's voice.
The discussion lasted fully an hour. Then some one made his appearance outside my window and called out:
“Hi, you chaps, come on and get ready!.... He's a stubborn beast and won't speak unless we make him.”
It was the tall fellow who, the day before, had forced his way through the crowd in the Yard by making an outcry about a wounded man. It was Velmot, a leaner Velmot, without beard or glasses, Velmot, the coxcomb, the object of Berangere's affections. ”

“ The camera is not a brain in which the picture can create itself, in which an hallucination is formed out of internal data. It is a witness that does not lie and is not mistaken. Well, this witness has spoken. The sensitive plate certifies the phenomena to be real. I hold at the disposal of the Academy seven negatives of the screen thus obtained by instantaneous exposures. ”

“ The pictures do not come from the wall itself. The cause lies elsewhere. I will prove it; and, if M. Massignac would show a little willingness to help...”
“Theodore Massignac was kidnapped this evening,” I remarked.
“Kidnapped? What do you mean?”
I repeated:
“Yes, kidnapped; and I presume that the amphitheatre will be closed until further notice.”
“But this is terrible, it's awful!” gasped Benjamin Prevotelle. “Why, in that case they couldn't verify my theory! There would never be any more pictures! No, look here, it's impossible. Just think, I don't know the indispensable formula! ”

“ It is well known that, if our ordinary cinematographic pictures projected on a screen be viewed in a mirror to which we impart a rapid rotary movement, the successive pictures are dislocated and yield images in the field of the mirror. A similar effect can be obtained, though less distinctly, by turning one's head quickly so as to project the successive pictures upon different points of the retina. It was therefore indicated that I should apply this method of analysis to the animated projections produced at Meudon. ”

“ The foregoing observations led up to a scientific certainty and naturally guided my investigations into a definite channel: the Meudon pictures are genuine cinematographic projections thrown upon the screen and perceived by the spectators in the ordinary manner. ”

“ It implies consequences which cannot be foretold. It is calculated to upset all our ideas of man's past and all our conceptions of his future. Not since the beginning of the world has there been an event to compare with this. ”

“ I thus hope, by confining my hypotheses to a definite channel, to assist towards establishing the truth and relieving the public mind.
“My investigations were commenced immediately after the first revelations made by M. Victorien Beaugrand. I collated all his statements. I analysed all his impressions. ”

“ I have carefully preserved a copy of that paper, by which a part at least of the great mystery was made known to me. Before reprinting the famous report, which Benjamin Prevotelle had published that morning, it said:
“Yes, the fantastic problem is solved. ”