Part 19 (1/2)

”This one here,” said Ginkel, ”is me in Vladivostok. It was taken on the corner there.”

The photograph showed Ginkel dressed just as he was in the hotel room, standing near a lamp post on a street corner. There was visible a part of a store window.

”This one is interesting,” said Ginkel, warming up. ”It was taken in the archipelago. You know where. I forget the name of the town. But it was in the south seas.”

We both studied it for a s.p.a.ce. It showed Ginkel standing underneath something that looked like a palm tree. But the tree was slightly out of focus. So were Ginkel's feet.

”It is interesting,” said Ginkel, ”But it ain't such a good picture. The lower part is kind of blurred, you notice.”

We looked through the alb.u.m in silence for a while. Then Ginkel suddenly remembered something.

”Oh, I almost forgot,” he said. ”There's one I think you'll like. It was taken in Calcutta. You know where. Here it is.”

He pointed proudly toward the end of the book. We studied it through the tobacco smoke. It was a photograph of Ginkel dressed in the same clothes as before and standing under a store awning.

”There was a good light on this,” said Ginkel, ”and you see how plain it comes out.”

Then we continued without comment to study other photographs. There were at least several hundred. They were all of Ginkel. Most of them were blurred and showed odds and ends of backgrounds out of focus, such as trees, street cars, buildings, telephone poles. There was one that finally aroused Ginkel to comment:

”This would have been a good one, but it got light struck,” he said. ”It was taken in Bagdad.”

When we had exhausted the alb.u.m Ginkel felt more at ease. He offered me some tobacco from his pouch. I resumed the original line of questioning.

”Did you have any unusual adventures during your travels or did you get any ideas that we could fix up for a story,” I asked.

”Well,” said Ginkel, ”I was always a camera bug, you know. I guess that's what gave me the bug for travelling. To take pictures, you know. I got a lot more than these, but I ain't mounted them yet.”

”Are they like the ones in the book.”

”Not quite so good, most of them,” Ginkel answered. ”They were taken when I hadn't had much experience.”

”You must have been in Russia while the revolution was going on, weren't you?”

”Oh, yes. I got one there.” He opened the book again. ”Here,” he said.

”This was in Moscow. I was in Moscow when this was taken.”

It was another picture of Ginkel slightly out of focus and standing against a store front. I asked him suddenly who had taken all the pictures.

”Oh, that was easy,” he said. ”I can always find somebody to do that. I take a picture of them first and then they take one of me. I always give them the one I take of them and keep the one they take of me.”

”Did you see any of the revolution, Ginkel?”

”A lot of monkey business,” said Ginkel. ”I seen some of it. Not much.”

The last thing I said was, ”You must have come in for a lot of sights. We might fix up a story about that if you could give me a line on them.” And the last thing Ginkel said was:

”Oh, yes, I've been around the world.”