t it; even if not----"

He stood silenced by a sudden thought, a gleam of light that illumined his
whole flushed face.

"Mullins!" he roared. Mullins was on the spot with somewhat suspicious
alacrity. "Get the almanac, Mullins, and look up Time of High Water at
London Bridge to-day!"

He himself flopped down behind the telephone to ring up the cab-office in
Bolton Street. But it takes time even for a Eugene Thrush to consume all
but three large whiskies and sodas; and the afternoon was already far
advanced.

THE SECRET OF THE CAMERA

The camera had been placed upon a folded newspaper, for the better
preservation of the hotel table-cloth. Its apertures were still choked
with mud; beads of slime kept breaking out along the joints. And Phillida
was still explaining to Pocket how the thing had come into her possession.

"The rain was the greatest piece of luck, though another big slice was an
iron gangway to the foreshore about a hundred yards up-stream. It was
coming down so hard at the time that I couldn't see another creature out
in it except myself. I don't believe a single soul saw me run down that
gangway and up again; but I dropped my purse over first for an excuse if
anybody did. I popped the camera under my waterproof, and carried it up
to the King's Road before I could get a cab. But I never expected to find
you awake and about again; next to the rain that's the best luck of all!"

"Why?"

"Because you know all about photography and I don't. Suppose he took a
last photograph, and suppose that led directly to the murder!"

"That's an idea."

"The man threw the camera into the river, but the plate would be in it
still, and you could develop it!"

The ingenious hypothesis had appealed to the eager credulity of the boy;
but at the final proposition he shook a reluctant head.

"I'm afraid there's not much chance of there being anything to develop;
the slide's been open all this time, you see."

"I know. I tried to shut it, but the wood must have swollen in the water.
Yet the more it has swollen, the better it ought to keep out the light,
oughtn't it?"

"I'm afraid there isn't a dog's chance," he murmured, as he handled the
camera again. Yet it was not of the folding-bellows variety, but was one
of the earlier and stronger models in box form, and it had come through
its ordeal wonderfully on the whole. Nothing was absolutely broken; but
the swollen slide jammed obstinately, until i