to
him. Could he not do the same thing with one of the fence wires? Connect
this end of the telegraph line (and fortunately it was the Hammerton
end), say to the upper strand, then run back to the office and string a
wire from the fence in to the instruments?

To think was to act. Dragging the telegraph wire to the fence, Jack
looped it over the topmost strand near one of the posts, and wound it
about several times, to ensure a good contact. Then on the run he started
back for the telegraph office.

As he neared the little building Jack saw a figure within. Thinking the
"Star" reporter had returned with further copy, he quickened his steps.
At the doorway he halted in consternation. Instead of the reporter were
two desperate-looking characters, and on the table beside them a
half-emptied bottle and a large revolver.

Jack hesitated a moment, then stepped inside. "What are you men doing
here?" he demanded.

"Oh, hello, kiddo! We are the new operators," said one of them with tipsy
humor. "You're discharged, see? And you git, too!" he suddenly shouted,
catching up the pistol. And promptly Jack "got." A few yards distant,
however, he halted. Now what was he to do?

"Oh here you are, eh? Where have you been?" It was West, the "Star" man,
and he spoke angrily. "I was here ten minutes ago, and found the office
empty, and if the other company could have handled my stuff yours would
have lost it. I've just been--"

Interrupting, Jack hastily explained, telling of the severed wire, and
his plan to bridge the break. The reporter uttered an indignant
exclamation. "It's Raub's work, sure as you're born," he said hotly.

"But say, youngster, we can't permit ourselves to be beaten this way.
Can't we do something?"

"We might get some help, and drive the roughs out," suggested Jack.

"No; we haven't time. And then they might put up a drunken fight and
shoot somebody. Come, think of something else. You surely can get over
this new difficulty, after your clever idea for getting around the cut in
the wire."

"I don't know," replied Jack doubtfully, glancing toward the office
window. "If there was any way of getting the instruments--"

"What could you do with them?"

"We could turn the barn there into an office. I'd run connections out
through the back to the fence. It's just behind."

"Say--I've an idea then! If it wouldn't take you long to remove the
instruments from the table?"

"Only a couple of minutes."

"Come on