here. Come in."

Alma, the bright one entered.

"What a room! Such disorder, Elmer."

"Yes. It is quite a comfortable den. I've unpacked everything, and--mind
your steps--feel quite at home--thank you."

"I should say as much. Do look at the dust. I must have Mary up here at
once."

"Madam, I never allow any female person to touch my traps. Mary may make
the bed, but she must not sweep, nor dust, nor touch anything."

"Oh! really. Then I'll go at once."

"Better not."

"Why?"

"Because I've many things to show----"

"Oh, Elmer! What is that--that queer thing on the table? May I look at
it?"

"That's my new camera."

"How stupid. I might have known that. Do you take pictures?"

"Photos? Yes. Will you sit?"

"Oh, dear, no. I hate photographs. It's so disagreeable to see oneself
staring with some impossible expression, and sitting in an impossible
palace, with a distant landscape and drapery curtains."

"Then I'll take a view for you. Find a seat somewhere while I rig
things. See those two people sitting on the little bridge that crosses
the race beyond the mill? I'll photograph them without their
permission."

Alma looked out of the window when Elmer had raised the curtain, but
declared she couldn't see anything.

"They are very far off. Take the field glass, and you'll see them."

Alma took the glass from the table, and looked out on the sunny
landscape.

"I see what you mean, but I can't make out who they are, even with the
glass. It's a man and a woman, and that's as much as I can see."

"You shall see them plain enough in a moment."

So saying, Elmer placed a long brass telescope upon a stand by the open
window, and through it he examined the couple on the bridge. Meanwhile
Alma gazed round the room and examined its strange contents with the
greatest interest.

The moment the focus of the glass was secured, Elmer hastily took the
little camera, and adjusting a slide in it from a table drawer, he
placed it before the telescope on the table and close to the eye hole.
Then, by throwing a black cloth over his head, he looked into it, turned
a screw or two, and in a moment had a negative of the distant couple.

"Aren't you almost ready?"

"In one moment, Alma. I must fix this first. I'll be right back."

So saying he took the slide from the little camera, and went out of the
room into a dark closet in the entry.

Alma waited patiently for a few moments, and then she took up the field
gl