Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1941-10-17

A pale and solemn clerk waited on
him. Charlie handed him the camera
and said, What is this thing?"
The clerk glanced at it and look
Of admiration came itno his eyes "a
Samson III. sir Very good camera,
and getting rare"
"Rare?"
THE war. It's German" He looked
shrewdly at Charlie. You don't want
to sell it, do you?"
Il might at the right price"
Say, s265?'
Charlie blinked, and put out his
hand for the camera and said quickly.
mo, was kidding want some film
for it and I want to know how to
use it."
An hour later, more than slightly
bewildered, Charlie came out into the
hot sunshine of the street Besides the
camera with a new case he now had
sunshade, a K2 filter. and a burn
ing conviction that if he couldn't take
better pictures than those of Steichens
and WeSton's the clerk had reverently
shown him, he would eat his Panama
hat without salt. AS far as he could
lcll Iioiii al lloll D tdlh anu loOhlllS dl
pictures, this was tight little racket
dominated by a few men who praised
each others pictures to the skies and
ignored everybody else. Why, some of
those pictures ..
There was look in his eye, a look
of craft and cunning and arrogance.
He started upstreet. and his interest
was Immediately taken by the form of
a transformer on pole with the sun
on it. He took picture of it. Further
upStreet, he saw window dresser man
handling dummy in a way that APP
pealed to his sense of humOr. He took
that picture. much to the embarraSS-
ment of the window dresser On the
corner by the bank, a big black linn
CUISINE was parked. Its license number
Charlie noticed, was 66666. Five skies
Unusual. He'd take picture of it.
At l o'clock, when hunger reminded
him of the time, he was well into his
third roll of film and had just fin
ished photographing two overloaded
garbage cans in a downtown back |
alley.
He drove home for lunch in a mild !
glow of satisfaction, which he had pre- |
viously regarded all cameras and peo- |,
pie who used them, and he knew Louise |
too. He'd better leave the !
stuff in the car.
He was jovial at lunch, his moodi-
ness gone, and before Louise had had
time to wonder at it, he was headed .
out for the country club. The after
noon, he'd already decided, was to be
spent in taking action shots.
the cl11h Charlie didn't aye,, %
to the locker room. He lowered around
the first tee. wrecking the drives of
half a dozen players with his picture
taking before Jim Hopper, Fred Maxim
and Ernie Younger came out Usually,
Charlie made up the foursome, which
was widely avoided by the other men,
bers because it was noisy, rude, ir-
reverent, and a bowling nuisance.
Charlie knew he was in for some rib
bling. but he relaxed on the bench and
called up pitying smile.
Fred Maxim saw him first and
stopped dead in his tracks. Hello,
Crippen," he greeted Charlie. whats
that hanging around your neck, an
albatroSS?"
Ernie saw him then and said, Il quit
can stand skyrocket when I drive,
out camera, no. Get out of here!"
Jim Hopper, big and bluff, came up
% him and said, Gimme look
Charlie grinned almost pityingly and
leld out the camera. Its a Samson
III, you dope, and it's got"
THE best damned Tufa tense money
will buy" Jim said. How do you like
he built-in exposure meter?"
"Hey!" Charlie said. DO you know
about cameras?"
'Nobody's ever proved it," Fred Ma
Kin put in. Still, he bought enough
'otes. to be elected president of the
Camera club"
You are?" Charlie asked blankly.
He was seeing Jim in a new light
Why didn't know this?"