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“I’ve never seen voice and picture synchronized for longer than five seconds”

“You’ll see mine for five reels”

Griffith glanced froaze of the tall detective

“My fir it ork,” said Bell “Clyde developed a new process with Professor Franz Beiderbecke, as an electro-acoustic scientist at the Imperial-Royal Polytechnic Institute in Vienna”

Griffith said, “I would love topictures The human voice is a wondrous factor at intense moments But I am not in any position to invest”

“I don’t need your money,” Clyde shot back “All I need is a laboratory like you’ve set up in that shed And a machine shop like you have for the cameras And—”

“Most of all,” Isaac Bell interrupted, “Clyde needs an important director to make a picture shoith his machin

e”

“That would be me,” said Griffith, “Except I’m only here until we finish In Old California Then it’s back to New York, and I doubt very raph will have any interest in a machine that would compete with Mr Edison But—” Here, with a draer for emphasis “By coincidence, I was, only yesterday, approached by the I to woo raph”

Bell did not like coincidences “Who is Imperial?”

“They showed raphy studio, and I’ll tell you it’s the finest motion picture plant in the West Four hundred hands, a corps of stage directors, es, complete laboratories, darkrooms, and machine shops All installed at a cost thatby the Artists Syndicate”

“What is the Artists Syndicate?” asked Bell

“They’re a coive a hoot for the Edison Trust Wait until you see Imperial They have a wealth of brand-new equip out a quantity of filit and vaud They’re all set to er, multi-reel pictures”

Clyde said to Isaac Bell, “Imperial sounds up-to-date”

“Could you arrange an appointment, Mr Griffith?”