“Possibly they’re holding it over until to-morrow,” he reflected. But his portrait did not ornament the Bulletin the next day, or for several days following.
Gale had just about decided that, after all, he had been mistaken in supposing that the Camera Chap had taken the snapshot for publication, when one morning he saw on the front page of Carroll’s newspaper something which well-nigh paralyzed him.
Stretched across the top of the page was the following “scare head”:
“The Truth About the Chronicle Explosion.—Daring Conspiracy Laid Bare.—The Innocence of Mr. Frederick Carroll, the People’s Party Candidate for Mayor. Fully Established.—The Bulletin in Possession of Positive Proof That He Is the Victim of Bold Frame-up Engineered by His Desperate Political Enemies.—Real Facts of Case to be Laid Before Grand Jury.”
There were other headlines beneath these, and several columns of smaller type were devoted to the details of the conspiracy.
In the center of the page was a half-tone portrait. Beneath it, in heavy-faced type, was the following:
“This is one of the scoundrels really responsible for the bomb outrage. It was this man who supplied the materials out of which the infernal machine was constructed. By means of the photograph, here reproduced, he has been positively identified by a man from whom he tried to purchase a stick of dynamite, and the jeweler who sold him[Pg 46] the cheap alarm clock from the works of which the mechanism of the infernal machine was made. Further details are given elsewhere on this page.”
It was the fact that Gale recognized the picture as a very good portrait of himself which caused him to turn pale and utter an exclamation of dismay as he read these startling lines.
With much trepidation he proceeded to read every word on the page. It was soon made very clear to him why there had been such a long interval between the taking of the snapshot and its publication on the front page of the Bulletin.
After taking the picture, Hawley had visited all the towns in the vicinity of Oldham. In each town he had gone to all the jewelry stores, and, showing Gale’s picture, had asked the salespeople if they recalled having sold a clock to the man within the past few days.