“So that by measuring the distance between the little lines which are shown on this photograph, indicating the pucker lines of the skin, it would be fully as possible to identify the lips which made this lipstick print as it would be to identify a person who had left a fingerprint upon the scalp of the dead man.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now, you have testified to having made imprints of the defendant’s fingers and compared those with the fingerprints found on the glass.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Have you made any attempt to take an imprint of her lips and compare that print with the print of the lipstick on the decedent?”

“No, sir,” Harlan said, shifting his position uneasily.

“Why not?”

“Well, in the first place, Mr. Mason, the fact that the pucker lines of lips are so highly individualized is not a generally known fact.”

“But you knew it.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And the more skilled experts in your profession know it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Why didn’t you do it, then?”

Harlan glanced somewhat helplessly at Stewart Linn.

“Oh, if the Court please,” Linn said, promptly taking his cue from that glance, “this hardly seems to be cross-examination. The inquiry is wandering far afield. I will object to the question on the ground that it’s incompetent, irrelevant, immaterial, and not proper cross-examination.”

“Overruled,” Judge Jordan snapped. “Answer the question!”

Harlan cleared his throat. “Well,” he said, “I just never thought of it.”

“Think of it now,” Mason said. “Go ahead and take the imprint right now and right here. . . . Put on plenty of lipstick, Miss Allison. Let’s see how your lips compare with those on the dead man’s forehead.”

“Oh, if the Court please,” Linn said wearily, “this hardly seems to be cross-examination. If Mr. Mason wants to make Harlan his own witness and call for this test as a part of the defendant’s case, that will be one thing; but this certainly isn’t cross-examination.”

“It may be cross-examination of Harlan’s qualifications as an expert,” Judge Jordan ruled.

“Oh, if the Court please! Isn’t that stretching a technicality rather far?”

“Your objection was highly technical,” Judge Jordan snapped. “It is overruled, and my ruling will stand. Take the impression, Mr. Harlan.”

Fay Allison, with trembling hand, daubed lipstick heavily on her mouth. Then, using the make-up mirror in her purse, smoothed off the lipstick with the tip of her little finger.

“Go ahead,” Mason said to Harlan; “check on her lips.”

Harlan, taking a piece of white paper from his brief-case, moved down to where the defendant was sitting beside Perry Mason and pressed the paper against her lips. He removed the paper and examined the imprint.

“Go ahead,” Mason said to Harlan; “make your comparison and announce the results to the Court.”

Harlan said, “Of course, I have not the facilities here for making a microscopic comparison, but I can tell from even a superficial examination of the lip lines that these lips did not make that print.”