“Let Uncle Dudley here come to bat with a bright suggestion,” said Phil. “Suppose we just take an ordinary lead pencil and scrape on the lead until we have sufficient powder for the purpose?”
“Fine. I believe that will do the trick,” responded Garry.
A pencil was quickly procured and Garry scraped a little heap of graphite powder while Dick prepared to take the pictures.
He procured a board and tacked the letters on it, and then set it against the house where the bright sunlight would strike it with full force.
“I’m going to give this a time exposure,” he told the boys. “This kind of work is generally done with artificial light, using an extra powerful bulb; but I think with this bright sunlight and a time exposure instead of a snapshot, we will be able to do a good job.”
Dick snapped the various letters, all except the one with the greasy imprint on it. This was held to the last, and when he was ready the board was laid flat while Garry sprinkled the powder on the print. Then the board was tilted so that all the surplus scrapings would slide off, leaving only those that adhered to the ridges. They were delighted when they found that they could almost make out the complete design of the print.
“I’m no judge of such matters, but I venture to say that there’s enough of a print there for any purposes of identification. Snap away,” said Garry.
Aunt Abbie and Ruth and her grandfather had been interested spectators during this operation, and as soon as the photographing of the letters was completed, Ruth asked if the boys would not take a snapshot of the entire group.
Dick said he would be glad to, and was arranging the members of the little party in a compact group, when the gate was opened and a man walked up the path. He was a lean, sallow looking man, and as he observed the three boys, he said:
“Am I right in supposing that one of you is Garry Boone?”