FullReads

“I’m not mystifying you at all; the clock took the pictures automatically. I’ll show you how,” Paul returned, getting up from his chair and going to the corner of the office.

Taking a key from his pocket he opened the case of the clock and revealed a small photographic apparatus inside, with the tube of the objective opposite the round glass panel in the door of the case. At the bottom of the case was a small electrical battery, and on a small shelf over this was an electro-magnet.

“I begin to see how you did it,” Mr. Whittier remarked. “I am not an expert in photography, Paul, and I’d like a full explanation. And make it as simple as you can.”

“It’s a very simple thing indeed,” said the son. “One day while I was wondering how we could best catch the man who was getting at the books, that clock happened to strike, and somehow it reminded me that in our photographic society at college we had once suggested that it would be amusing to attach a detective camera to a timepiece and take snapshots every few minutes all through the day. I saw that this clock of ours faced the safe, and that it couldn’t be better placed for the purpose. So when I had thought out my plan, I came over here and pretended that the clock was wrong, and in setting it right I broke off the minute-hand. Then I had a man I know send for it for repairs; he is both an electrician and an expert photographer. Together we worked out this device. Here is a small snap-shot camera loaded with a hundred and fifty films; and here is the electrical attachment which connects with the clock so as to take a photograph every ten minutes from eight in the morning to six at night. We arranged that the magnet should turn the spool of film after every snap-shot.”

“Well!” cried Mr. Wheatcroft. “I don’t know much about these things, but I read the papers, and I suppose you mean that the clock ‘pressed the button,’ and the electricity pulled the string.”

“That’s it precisely,” the young man responded. “Of course I wasn’t quite sure how it would work, so I thought I would try it first on a week-day when we were all here. It did work all right, and I made several interesting discoveries. I found that Mike smoked a pipe in this office–and that Bob played leap-frog in the store and stood on his head in the corner there up against the safe!”

“The confounded young rascal!” interrupted Mr. Wheatcroft.

Paul smiled as he continued. “I found also that Mr. Wheatcroft was captivated by a pretty book-agent and bought two bulky volumes he didn’t want.”

Mr. Wheatcroft looked sheepish for a moment.

“Oh, that’s how you knew, is it?” he growled, running his hands impatiently through his shock of hair.

“That’s how I knew,” Paul replied. “I told you I had an eye on you. It was the lone eye of the camera. And on Sunday it kept watch for us here, winking every ten minutes. From eight o’clock in the morning to three in the afternoon it winked forty-two times, and all it saw was the same scene, the empty corner of the room here, with the safe in the shadow at first and at last in the full light that poured down from the glass roof over us. But a little after three a man came into the office and made ready to open the safe. At ten minutes past three the clock and the camera took his photograph–in the twinkling of an eye. At twenty minutes past three a second record was made. Before half-past three the man was gone, and the camera winked every ten minutes until six o’clock quite in vain. I came down early this morning and got the roll of negatives. One after another I developed them, disappointed that I had almost counted fifty of them without reward. But the forty-third and the forty-fourth paid for all my trouble.”

Mr. Whittier gave his son a look of pride. “That was very ingeniously worked out, Paul; very ingeniously indeed,” he said. “If it had not been for your clock here I might have found it difficult to prove that the Major was innocent–especially since he declared himself guilty.”

Mr. Wheatcroft rose to his feet, to close the conversation.

“I’m glad we know the truth, anyhow,” he asserted, emphatically. And then, as though to relieve the strain on the old book-keeper, he added, with a loud laugh at his own joke, “That clock had its hands before its face all the time–but it kept its eyes open for all that!”

“Don’t forget that it had only one eye,” said Whittier, joining in the laugh; “it had an eye single to its duty.”

“You know the French saying, father,” added Paul, “‘In the realm of the blind the one-eyed man is king.'”

(1895.)