"No, but I understand some valuable stuff has been mysteriously
disappearing at Claxton and Eastfield," was the reply.

Jack was considerably disappointed; but before giving up this line of
investigation he determined to study the freight records of the station,
to discover whether any freight for the two places mentioned by Alex had
passed through Midway. A few minutes' search produced the record of a
valuable shipment of silk to Claxton. A moment later he found another.

When presently he found still others, and several to Eastfield, he
hurried back to the wire and calling Alex asked the nature of the goods
lost track of at those stations, and breathlessly awaited the reply.

"I'll ask," said Alex--"Silverware and silk. Mostly silk."

Jack uttered a shout. "Hurrah, Alex," he whirred, "I'm on the track of
our friend the 'ghost.' But keep mum.

"And now the question is," he told himself, leaning back in his chair,
"how do they work it?"

The answer to the query came very unexpectedly as Jack left the station
office at daybreak. Strolling down the front platform, where several men
already were at work unloading a car, he inadvertently got in the way of
a loaded truck. On the sudden cry of the truckman he sprang aside,
tripped, and fell headlong against a large, square packing-case. As he
did so, he distinctly heard from within a sharp "Oh!"

Only with difficulty did Jack avoid crying out, and scrambling to his
feet, hastened away, that his discovery might not be suspected by the man
in the box.

The whole mystery was now clear. The "ghost" was a freight thief, who had
himself shipped, in a box, to some point which would necessitate his
being transferred and held over night at the freight junction. He played
"ghost" either to frighten the operator away, or to lead to the belief
that any noises overheard were caused by "spirits," then overhauled the
valuable freight in the shed, took what he wanted with him into his own
box (which supposedly he could open and close from the inside), and was
shipped away with it the following morning. The rifled packages,
carefully re-sealed, also went on to their several destinations, and the
blame of the theft was laid elsewhere.

Jack was not long in deciding upon his next move. Coming down from the
boarding-house before the sheds had been closed that afternoon, he noted
where the box containing the unsuspected human freight had been placed,
and selecting a window at the far