Owen was called upon as the most experienced in new cameras to tell Edith and the rest all about the Wizard; to explain the focussing scale, which Dr. Hartel said Captain Kodak really should call a “range-finder”; to point out features of the shutter, through which the picture could jump in the fraction of a second, or which could be set so that a long exposure might be given when there was not sufficient light for a “snap-shot”; to show the action of the slides in the plate-holders, the use of the diaphragm, and more other things about the camera than you would have supposed could be said about a box so small and innocent looking.
“And is it all loaded and ready?” asked Edith, looking down at Allan and McConnell, who were bending over the camera in some new investigation.
“Yes,” said Allan.
“It is a pity not to be able to try it now in some way.”
“Edith,” remonstrated Mrs. Hartel, “you are always impatient.”
“Well,” said the Doctor, “I guess they all are—I think I am myself. The only difference is that Edith speaks out.”
“You could make a flash light,” Owen suggested. At this moment the clatter of a bell could be heard in the adjacent street and some one ran rapidly past the house.
“A fire!” shouted McConnell.
There was a pause during which every one listened breathlessly. Allan and McConnell were already at the gate. “It is a fire!” Allan reported in a moment, “over by the East Church.”
“There is something to photograph!” exclaimed the Doctor.