“Huh! What do you want to say to him?” growled Hodgins suspiciously.
Gale smiled sardonically. “I just want to have a little fun at his expense, that’s all. It’ll be great sport to kid him. It can’t possibly do any harm—there’s no danger of his getting away, so please do me that favor, will you?”
The Camera Chap seemed to be having some trouble in getting a satisfactory focus. He fidgeted with his camera for several minutes before he was quite content with the reflection in the view finder. But at last he was ready to take the picture, and there was a faint clicking sound as he squeezed the bulb.
The noises of the street, of course, prevented Gale from hearing this click; but he saw Hawley’s fingers compress the rubber bulb, and he knew that the psychological moment had arrived.
Stepping out from his place of concealment, he confronted the Camera Chap just as that young man was in the act of restoring his photographic apparatus to its original paper wrapping.
If Gale had loved Hawley like an only brother, his face could not have been more expressive of cordiality as he advanced toward the latter with hand outstretched.
“Well, if it isn’t good old Hawley, as large as life!” he exclaimed effusively. “My dear fellow, this certainly is a pleasant surprise.”
The Camera Chap looked startled. “Hello, Gale,” he said nervously, apparently failing to see the other’s outstretched hand. “This meeting is a surprise to me, too. But I can’t stop to talk now. I’m in a big hurry. He was about to move on, but Gale detained him by clutching his coat sleeve.
“Don’t be in such a rush, old fellow,” he said pleasantly. “Surely you can spare a couple of minutes. There are so many things I want to say to you. In the first place, what on earth are you doing in Oldham?[Pg 48]”
“I am taking a little vacation,” Hawley replied, trying to wrench his arm free from Gale’s detaining grasp.