“Thank goodness, you’ve come at last!” the proprietor of the Bulletin exclaimed. “I was just thinking of coming in for you. I heard the flash go off a few minutes ago, and things were so uncannily quiet afterward that I was beginning to be afraid they had killed you. What on earth happened?”
“I’ll tell you all about it when we’re in the car,” chuckled[Pg 47] Hawley, hurrying toward the corner where the automobile waited. “I don’t think there’s any danger now, but just the same we might as well get away from here as soon as possible. I don’t believe in taking any unnecessary chances.”
Parsons, who was seated at the wheel of the motor car, uttered an ejaculation of joy when he caught sight of the Camera Chap.
“You don’t mean to say that you actually got the picture?” he exclaimed incredulously, as the latter climbed aboard.
Hawley grinned. “I got something,” he said; “but I can’t guarantee that the result will be good. I had to manipulate my camera with one hand, and I had to guess the focus. Under those conditions, the chances are against the negative turning out all right. But it was the best I could do under the circumstances.”
“How on earth did you do it?” Carroll inquired. “I can’t imagine how you got off so easily. Do you mean to say that bunch didn’t jump on you when you set off the flash?”
“Not at all,” replied the Camera Chap, with a laugh. “They were very nice about it. There wasn’t any rough-house at all, Fred. The last I saw of those fellows they were making a scientific experiment.”
“A scientific experiment?” Carroll repeated, with a puzzled frown.
“Exactly,” Hawley chuckled. “They were all gathered around the waiter like students in a chemistry class. And what do you suppose that waiter was doing, Fred?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea.”