that is, appreciating light. It was X-ray work that started me in that
direction. Yet, you must understand, though I was attempting to develop
this 'unexposed' plate, I had no definite idea of results--nothing more
than a vague hope that it might show me something.

"Yet, because of the possibilities, it was with the most intense and
absorbing interest that I watched the plate under the action of the
developer. Presently I saw a faint smudge of black appear in the upper
part, and after that others, indistinct and wavering of outline. I held
the negative up to the light. The marks were rather small, and were
almost entirely confined to one end of the plate, but as I have said,
lacked definiteness. Yet, such as they were, they were sufficient to make
me very excited and I shoved the thing quickly back into the solution.

"For some minutes further I watched it, lifting it out once or twice to
make a more exact scrutiny, but could not imagine what the markings might
represent, until suddenly it occurred to me that in one of two places
they certainly had shapes suggestive of a cross hilted dagger. Yet, the
shapes were sufficiently indefinite to make me careful not to let myself
be overimpressed by the uncomfortable resemblance, though I must confess,
the very thought was sufficient to set some odd thrills adrift in me.

"I carried development a little further, then put the negative into the
hypo, and commenced work upon the other plate. This came up nicely, and
very soon I had a really decent negative that appeared similar in every
respect (except for the difference of lighting) to the negative I had
taken during the previous day. I fixed the plate, then having washed both
it and the 'unexposed' one for a few minutes under the tap, I put them
into methylated spirits for fifteen minutes, after which I carried them
into the photographer's kitchen and dried them in the oven.