nergetically to work upon them, whistling some very saucy songs he had
learned of the guide in the Red River country, and trying to forget that
the face which was presently to appear was that of a dead woman. He had
used three plates as a precaution against accident, and they came
up well. But as they developed, he became aware of the existence of
something in the photograph which had not been apparent to his eye
in the subject. He was irritated, and without attempting to face the
mystery, he made a few prints and laid them aside, ardently hoping that
by some chance they would never be called for.

However, as luck would have it,--and Hoyt's luck never had been
good,--his employer asked one day what had become of those photographs.
Hoyt tried to evade making an answer, but the effort was futile, and he
had to get out the finished prints and exhibit them. The older man sat
staring at them a long time.

"Hoyt," he said, "you're a young man, and very likely you have never
seen anything like this before. But I have. Not exactly the same thing,
perhaps, but similar phenomena have come my way a number of times since
I went in the business, and I want to tell you there are things in
heaven and earth not dreamt of--"

"Oh, I know all that tommy-rot," cried Hoyt, angrily, "but when anything
happens I want to know the reason why and how it is done."

"All right," answered his employer, "then you might explain why and how
the sun rises."

But he humored the young man sufficiently to examine with him the baths
in which the plates were submerged, and the plates themselves. All was
as it should be; but the mystery was there, and could not be done away
with.

Hoyt hoped against hope that the friends of the dead woman would somehow
forget about the photographs; but the idea was unreasonable, and one
day, as a matter of course, the daughter appeared and asked to see the
pictures of her mother.

"Well, to tell the truth," stammered Hoyt, "they didn't come out
quite--quite as well as we could wish."

"But let me see them," persisted the lady. "I'd like to look at them
anyhow."

"Well, now," said Hoyt, trying to be soothing, as he believed it was
always best to be with women,--to tell the truth he was an ignoramus
where women were concerned,--"I think it would be better if you didn't
look at them. There are reasons why--" he ambled on like this, stupid
man that he was, till the lady naturally insisted upon seeing the
pictures w