His idea was to beguile Carroll and Hawley into confessing that those police snapshots were fakes; then, as soon as that humiliating confession was published in the Bulletin, he intended to declare war once more on that newspaper. He figured that Carroll would be so discredited in the eyes of the public that he would have nothing more to fear from him or his newspaper. Therefore, the Honorable Martin Henkle was exceedingly chagrined that neither Hawley nor Carroll had fallen for his little game.
Still, he derived some satisfaction from Chief Hodgins’ report that the Camera Chap had left town on the seven o’clock train for New York. He realized that had the Camera Chap refused to go voluntarily he would have had no legal right to force him to leave Oldham. In that event, he would have had to carry out his threat to send Hawley to jail, for he was determined to get rid of him; but he was strongly opposed to taking that step, for fear of the adverse public sentiment which it was likely to arouse.
With the Camera Chap out of the way, the mayor felt confident that he would soon be able to put the Bulletin out of business. The sudden spurt of success displayed by Carroll’s newspaper he attributed entirely to the aid[Pg 55] which Hawley had given with his camera. Now that the Camera Chap had gone back to New York, the Bulletin’s circulation would soon dwindle.
Possibly his honor would not have felt so confident if he had overheard Hawley’s words as he took leave of his friend Carroll.
“I have promised to leave on the seven o’clock train,” the Camera Chap said, with a smile, “and, of course, I shall keep that promise. I have some business to attend to in New York, anyway, Fred, so the time consumed by the trip will not be wasted.”
“But,” he added, with a chuckle, “I have not promised my friend the mayor that I would not come back. Very careless of him to overlook that point, wasn’t it? I shall stop in New York only a few hours; then I shall return to resume my job as staff photographer of the Bulletin.”
As it turned out, the Camera Chap had cause to feel very grateful to Mayor Henkle for sending him back to New York on the seven o’clock train. For on that train he made the acquaintance of a man who was a friend of the younger Gale. As a result of this, Hawley was enabled to solve the mystery of Gale’s sudden desire to marry his Cousin Melba.
His meeting with this man was not quite accidental, although the Camera Chap took pains to make it appear so. It came about in this manner: Just as the train was about to pull out of the station, two men came down the platform and stopped at the coach in which Hawley sat. One was Gale. The other was a tall blond man, whose face was exceedingly flushed, and who walked somewhat unsteadily. The Camera Chap’s attention was attracted to the pair by the voice of Gale’s companion, which was pitched far above its normal register. He was taking leave of Gale, who evidently had come there merely to see him off.
“Well, s’long, old scout!” he shouted, shaking Gale’s hand vigorously. “See yer again next time I hit this little old town. Hope by that time you’ll be married to——”
He didn’t finish the sentence, for Gale hastily cut him short by saying something to him in a tone so low that Hawley could not catch the words. Then Gale and a guard assisted the wabbly young man aboard the coach, and the train started.