[two notes placed separately- first note is signed, second is in disguised handwriting]

[herr_inspektor]

Is anyone here capable of sketching portraits? I'd like to have a photograph I have memorised replicated for security purposes.

- Inspector Lunge

To the one with whom the private conversation was held: he is still gone. There may be time yet in which to unburden yourself before he returns. 

Comments

[hairraising]

I can draw and paint really well! What's a photograph, though?

- Rapunzel

[herr_inspektor]

[Rapunzel. dot dot dot.] A photograph is a picture taken by a camera: it produces an exact likeness of the thing it captures, like an extraordinarily detailed painting.

[hairraising]

That's amazing! How does it do that?

[herr_inspektor]

I'm [dot dot] not sure. It's to do with the way light falls onto light-sensitive materials. Have you never seen a camera?

[hairraising]

Huh.

No, never. What does one look like?

[herr_inspektor]

[you know, he's never thought about it before] A small box with a glass lense in the front and buttons on the top to operate it.

[hairraising]

I see. [Added after a moment of thought.] I think.

So is there something like paint inside the box that moves or sets when you push the buttons or let light in through the glass?

[herr_inspektor]

[...............]

No, it's [a few pen taps] I'm afraid I can't explain it. But it's not that.

[hairraising]

Well I'll take your word for it anyway. Maybe I'll see for myself someday!