“I don’t want anything out of the Bulletin’s treasury,” the girl said. “The price of these pictures, Fred, is the forgiveness and reinstatement of Miggsy.”
Carroll’s face grew grim. “Nothing doing,” he said firmly. “I’ve no use for traitors. What that young scamp did shows that he is thoroughly vicious. You can’t reasonably expect me to take him back, Melba.”
“But he is only a child, Fred,” the girl pleaded. “And just think how strongly he was tempted. He is thoroughly[Pg 54] penitent now. I am quite sure he would never make a mistake like that again.”
She turned appealingly to the Camera Chap. Her intuition told her that she would find an ally in that generous, broad-minded young man. “Don’t you think that poor Miggsy ought to be given another chance, Mr. Hawley?” she said.
“Indeed I do,” was the prompt reply. “See here, Fred, as Miss Gale says, Miggsy is only a kid. Even a full-grown man might have found it difficult to resist the inducements that those fellows probably offered. Let’s not be too hard on the youngster. He’s been punished quite enough, I think. The crooked deal he got from the Chronicle was a lesson he won’t forget in a hurry.”
“Besides,” said Melba, “don’t forget, Fred, that we owe the recovery of these negatives entirely to him. If Miggsy hadn’t worked that clever ruse on your photo-engraver, I shouldn’t have had the least idea how to get the pictures out of the hands of the Chronicle’s photo-engraver. I merely copied his plan. You ought to take that into account.”
The childlike argument caused Carroll’s face to relax into a smile. “A woman’s logic is certainly a wonderful thing,” he chuckled. “It seems to me that if the boy hadn’t worked that trick in the first place, there wouldn’t have been any occasion for you to copy it at all. However, since you are both against me, I suppose I have got to give in. Miggsy shall have another chance. I’ll send somebody out to find him and bring him back.”
The Camera Chap, happening to glance out of the window at that moment, saw something which brought a broad grin to his face.
“I guess you won’t have to search far for him,” he announced. “Unless my eyes greatly deceive me, he is standing on the other side of the street at this very minute, gazing wistfully up at these windows, like a little fox terrier who has been turned out of the house. Take a peep at him, Fred. If the expression of abject misery on that young countenance wouldn’t melt the hardest heart, I don’t know what would.”
Carroll stepped to the window, and, catching Miggsy’s eye, beckoned to him to come up.