Arthur and Nellie Claus arrived early to get good seats. “I was hanging on to every word,” Arthur said. Suddenly, he began having abdominal cramps. Reluctantly, he left the hall, knowing that he could not reenter. An usher asked, “How can you leave at a time like this?” Arthur knew he must.
On his return, Arthur heard loud applause from inside the hall. Searching for a spot outside the hall where he could hear what was going on inside, he discovered a place to climb up onto the roof, about 16 feet (4.8 m) high. Then he made his way toward a large skylight with open windows.
There Arthur found several brothers in a quandary, peering down on the speaker. They had instructions to cut several cords simultaneously to release a banner. But to cut the cords all at once, they needed one more knife. Did Arthur have a sharp pocketknife? To their great relief, he did. Arthur and the others took their positions and waited for the appointed signal. When Brother Rutherford said “Advertise!” for the second time, they were to cut the cords.
Eyewitnesses described how smoothly the large, three-colored banner unfurled. In the center was a painting of Jesus.
Afterward, the brothers explained to Arthur that they had climbed a ladder to the roof and then the ladder had been taken away. They could not go for help, so they prayed to Jehovah to send a brother with a knife. Those brothers were convinced that Jehovah had answered their prayer in a most interesting way.