“But what shall we do with the front glass?” and Allan struggled to think of some way to color the front glass.
“Wait a moment,” said the Doctor. “You will get a regular ruby lamp if you need one, but I think I can show you an emergency method of using any lamp of this sort.” He found a piece of reddish powder-wrapper in his chemical closet, and this he fastened over the front of the lantern; then taking a larger sheet of manila paper he made a cylinder of this about the size of an ordinary Chinese lantern.
“That,” he said, “is a safety shield to keep out any rays of white light that may escape from any of these smaller ventilating holes of the lamp.” The Doctor placed the lamp inside the shield. “Yellow paper is the next best shield to red. They got along with yellow light when photographic plates were less sensitive. Now they often use both yellow and red glass in combination. Well, I guess we are ready to load up.”
Allan led the procession up to his room, carrying the plate-holders—there were four of these—and the lamp. McConnell came next with the manila paper shield, and the Doctor followed in the rear with the box of plates. On the way the procession met Mrs. Hartel who had been putting little Ellen to bed.
“What is this strange procession?” she cried.
“This is the kodak contingent,” laughed the Doctor; “a company of kodakers just going into camp.”
“And you, Allan, are you the captain?” asked Mrs. Hartel.
“Yes,” the Doctor replied for him, “he is the captain—Captain Kodak; that is quite a good name for him now.”
“Well,” Mrs. Hartel called after them, “I hope you will always preserve good order in your camps—and especially great cleanliness. You know what I mean by that, Harry,” Mrs. Hartel said to the Doctor. “I don’t want any chemicals on the bed-spread.”
“Oh, we’re going out to the stable to do that,” Allan called back.