“I’m with you!” yelled Ned.

They lost little time getting into their clothes, for they had laid them out in readiness for putting on quickly.  Down the stairs they raced, but ere they reached the garden they heard footsteps running along 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 the giant was also heard.  The flashlights had ceased popping before this, and when the two lads and their helpers had reached the shop, there was no one in sight.

“The camera’s there all right!” cried Tom in relief as he picked it up from the box.  “Now to see what it caught.  Did you see anything of the fellows, 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 de do’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 the pictures were so small that Tom could not make out the features or forms of the men.  And it was plain that at least three men had been around the coop and shop.

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

First came several brilliant flashes of light, and then, as the entrance to the shop loomed into view, a dark figure seemed to walk across the canvas.  But it did not stop at the shop door.  Instead it went to the chicken coop, and, as the man reached that door, he began working to get it open.  Of course it had all taken place in a few seconds, for, as soon as the flashlights went off, the intruders had run away.  But they had been there long enough to have their pictures taken.

The man at the chicken coop turned around as the lights flashed, and he was looking squarely at the camera.  Of course this made his face very plain to the audience, as Tom turned the crank of the reproducing machine.

“Why, it’s a colored man!” cried Ned in surprise.

“Yes, I guess it’s only an ordinary chicken thief, after all,” remarked Tom.

There was a gasp from Eradicate.

“Fo’ de land sakes!” he cried.  “De raskil!  Ef dat ain’t mah own second cousin, what libs down by de ribber!  An’ to t’ink dat Samuel ’Rastus Washington Jackson Johnson, mah own second cousin, should try t’ rob mah 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 startled colored man on the screen stared at the small audience.  “I’d know. dat face ob his’n anywhere.”