"And isn't there any counterfeiting plant?" Sammy wanted to know.
"Nothing half as sensational as that," answered Mr. Houghton, with a hearty laugh. "This is only my new apparatus for having animals take their own pictures."
For a moment there was silence, and then Sammy, in a queer sort of voice, murmured:
"Stung again!"
All his mystery had vanished into thin air.
"Make animals take their own photographs; eh?" said Mr. Jessup. "That's rather odd."
"Oh, it is often done," said Mr. Houghton. "All you have to do is to set your camera in the woods after dark, near where you have noticed marks of a raccoon, muskrat or other wild animal. You put a string across the path the animal usually takes, and in the dark it runs into the string and breaks it. This sets off a flashlight which makes the place as light as day. The breaking of the string also opens and closes the shutters of the camera, and so the animal takes its own picture. I've been doing it for some time, and had good results. I left my cameras, flashlights, batteries and so on here, in the hope of getting pictures of bats, but I guess I'll have to try again."
"So that's what it was that exploded," said Sammy—"flashlight powder?"
"That was it," said Mr. Houghton. "You see I happened to discover this secret room by accident. I was going through the old mansion one day, thinking it would be a good place to get bat pictures, and I found the secret chamber. So I fitted it up as a room where I could sleep when I had to. Often I would take my cameras out in the woods and leave them there until nearly morning. Then I would get up and go bring them in. I did not want to disturb my uncle so I
