ver, was on his feet and at the nearby hand-brake in a
twinkle. Tightening it, he scrambled back over the bounding car to the
next.

Ten minutes later, screeching and groaning as though in protest, the
runaways came to a final stop.

Another ten minutes, and the engineer of the Accommodation suddenly threw
on his air as he rounded a curve to discover a lantern swinging across
the rails ahead of him.

"Hello there, Jerry! Say, you're not good enough for a passenger run,"
said the section foreman humorously as he approached the astonished
engineer. "We're going to put you back pushing ore cars. There's a string
here just ahead of you."

When he had explained the engineer stepped down from his cab to grasp
Alex's hand. "Oh, it was more the foreman than I," Alex declared. "I
couldn't have worked it alone."

A moment later the superintendent appeared. "Why, let me see," he
exclaimed on seeing Alex. "Are you not the lad I helped fix up an
emergency battery at Watson Siding last spring? And who has been
responsible for two or three other similar clever affairs?

"My boy, young as you are, my name's not Cameron if I don't see that you
have a try-out at the division office before the month is out," he
announced decisively. "We need men there with a head like yours."

[Illustration: THE WAIT WAS NOT LONG.]

XI

THE HAUNTED STATION

True to the division superintendent's promise, a month following the
incident of the runaway ore train, Alex was transferred to the
despatching office at Exeter. It was the superintendent himself who on
the evening of his arrival presented him for duty to the chief night
despatcher; and a few minutes later, having been initiated into the
mysteries of directing and recording the movements of trains, Alex was
shown to his wire.

"It is a short line--only as far as the Midway freight junction," the
chief explained; "but if you make good here, you will soon be given
something bigger.

"And, by the way, take your time in sending to the operator at the
Junction," he added. "He's a rather poor receiver, but was the only man
we could get to go there, on account of that so-called 'haunting'
business."

"Oh, has the 'ghost' appeared there again?" inquired Alex with interest.
For the "haunting" of the Midway Junction station had been a subject of
much discussion on the main-line wire a few weeks back.

"Yes, two nights ago. And like the four men there before him, the night
man left next