Tom Swift and His Wizard Camera; Or, Thrilling Adventures While Taking Moving Pictures

by Victor Appleton

  CHAPTER VII

  WHAT THE CAMERA CAUGHT

  "Well, is she working, Tom?" asked our hero's chum, a little later,when they had set the camera up on a box in the garden. It pointedtoward the main shop door, and from the machine came a clicking sound.The electric light was glowing.

  "Yes, it's all ready," replied Tom. "Now just act as if it wasn'tthere. You walk toward the shop. Do anything you please. Pretend youare coming in to see me on business. Act as if it was daytime. I'llstand here and receive you. Later, I'll get dad out here, Koku andEradicate. I wish Mr. Period was here to see the test, but perhaps it'sjust as well for me to make sure it works before he sees it."

  "All right, Tom, here I come."

  Ned advanced toward the shop. He tried to act as though the camera wasnot taking pictures of him, at the rate of several a second, but heforgot himself, and turned to look at the staring lens. Then Tom, witha laugh, advanced to meet him, shaking hands with him. Then the ladsindulged in a little skylarking. They threw snowballs at each other,taking care, however to keep within range of the lens. Of course whenTom worked the camera himself, he could point it wherever he wanted to,but it was now automatic.

  Then the lads went to the shop, and came out again. They did severalother things. Later Koku, and Eradicate did some "stunts," as Tomcalled them. Mr. Swift, too, was snapped, but Mrs. Baggert refused tocome out.

  "Well, I guess that will do for now," said Tom, as he stopped themechanism. "I've just thought of something," he added. "If I leave thelight burning, it will scare away, before they got in front of thelens, any one who might come along. I'll have to change that part ofit."

  "How can you fix it?" asked Ned.

  "Easily. I'll rig up some flash lights, just ordinary photographingflashlights, you know. I'll time them to go off one after the other,and connect them with an electric wire to the door of my shop."

  "Then your idea is--" began Ned.

  "That some rascals may try to enter my shop at night. Not thisparticular night, but any night. If they come to-night we'll be readyfor them."

  "An' can't yo'-all take a picture ob de chicken coop?" asked Eradicate."Dat feller may come back t' rob mah hens."

  "With the lens pointing toward the shop," spoke Tom, "it will also takesnap shots of any one who tries to enter the coop. So, if the chickenthief does come, Rad, we'll have a picture of him."

  Tom and Ned soon had the flashlights in place, and then they went tobed, listening, at times, for the puff that would indicate that thecamera was working. But the night passed without incident, rather toTom's disappointment. However, in the morning, he developed the film ofthe first pictures taken in the evening. Soon they were dry enough tobe used in the moving picture machine, which Tom had bought, and set upin a dark room.

  "There we are!" he cried, as the first images were thrown on the whitescreen. "As natural as life, Ned! My camera works all right!"

  "That's so. Look! There's where I hit you with a snowball!" cried hischum, as the skylarking scene was reached.

  "Mah goodness!" cried Eradicate, when he saw himself walking about onthe screen, as large as life. "Dat shorely am wonderful."

  "It is spirits!" cried Koku, as he saw himself depicted.

  "I wish we had some of the other pictures to show," spoke Tom. "I meansome unexpected midnight visitors."

  For several nights in succession the camera was set to "snap" any onewho might try to enter the shop. The flashlights were also in place.Tom and Ned, the latter staying at his chum's house that week, werebeginning to think they would have their trouble for their pains. Butone night something happened.

  It was very dark, but the snow on the ground made a sort of glow thatrelieved the blackness. The camera had been set as usual, and Tom andNed went to bed.

  It must have been about midnight when they were both awakened byhearing the burglar alarm go off. At the same time there were severalflashes of fire from the garden.

  "There she goes!" cried Ned.

  "Yes, they're trying to get into the shed," added Tom, as a glance atthe burglar-alarm indicator on the wall of the room, showed that theshop door was being tried. "Come on!"

  "I'm with you!" yelled Ned.

  They lost little time getting into their clothes, for they had laidthem out in readiness for putting on quickly. Down the stairs theyraced, but ere they reached the garden they heard footsteps runningalong the wall toward the road.

  "Who's there?" cried Tom, but there was no answer.

  "Koku! Eradicate!" yelled Ned.

  "Yais, sah, I'se comm'!" answered the colored man, and the voice of thegiant was also heard. The flashlights had ceased popping before this,and when the two lads and their helpers had reached the shop, there wasno one in sight.

  "The camera's there all right!" cried Tom in relief as he picked it upfrom the box. "Now to see what it caught. Did you see anything of thefellows, Koku, or Eradicate?" Both said they had not, but Eradicate,after examining the chicken house door by the aid of a lighted match,cried out:

  "Somebody's been tryin' t' git in heah, Massa Tom. I kin see where dedo's been scratched."

  "Well, maybe we'll have the picture for you to look at in the morning,"said Tom.

  The films were developed in the usual way in the morning, but thepictures were so small that Tom could not make out the features orforms of the men. And it was plain that at least three men had beenaround the coop and shop.

  By the use of alcohol and an electric fan Tom soon had the films dryenough to use. Then the moving picture machine was set up in a darkroom, and all gathered to see what would be thrown on the screen,greatly enlarged.

  First came several brilliant flashes of light, and then, as theentrance to the shop loomed into view, a dark figure seemed to walkacross the canvas. But it did not stop at the shop door. Instead itwent to the chicken coop, and, as the man reached that door, he beganworking to get it open. Of course it had all taken place in a fewseconds, for, as soon as the flashlights went off, the intruders hadrun away. But they had been there long enough to have their picturestaken.

  The man at the chicken coop turned around as the lights flashed, and hewas looking squarely at the camera. Of course this made his face veryplain to the audience, as Tom turned the crank of the reproducingmachine.

  "Why, it's a colored man!" cried Ned in surprise.

  "Yes, I guess it's only an ordinary chicken thief, after all," remarkedTom.

  There was a gasp from Eradicate.

  "Fo' de land sakes!" he cried. "De raskil! Ef dat ain't mah own secondcousin, what libs down by de ribber! An' to t'ink dat Samuel 'RastusWashington Jackson Johnson, mah own second cousin, should try t' robmah chicken coop! Oh, won't I gib it t' him!"

  "Are you sure, Rad?" asked Tom.

  "Suah? Sartin I'se suah, Massa Tom," was the answer as the startledcolored man on the screen stared at the small audience. "I'd know datface ob his'n anywhere."

  "Well, I guess he's the only one we caught last night," said Tom, asthe disappointed chicken thief ran away, and so out of focus. But thenext instant there came another series of flashlight explosions on thescreen, and there, almost as plainly as if our friends were looking atthem, they saw two men stealthily approaching the shop. They, too, asthe chicken thief had done, tried the door, and then, they also,startled by the flashes, turned around.

  "Look!" cried Ned.

  "Great Scott!" exclaimed Tom. "Those are the two rivals of Mr. Period!They are Mr. Turbot and Mr. Eckert!"

  "Same men I pushed out!" cried Koku, much excited.

  There was no doubt of it, and, as the images faded from the screen,caused by the men running away, Tom and Ned realized that their rivalshad tried to put their threat into execution--the threat of making Tomwish he had taken their offer.

  "I guess they came to take my camera,--but, instead the camera tookthem," said the young inventor grimly.