end of the shed, seized a favorable
moment to quietly loosen its catch.

It was near midnight, and Jack was once more the sole guardian of the
station when he took the next step. And despite a certain nervousness,
now that the exciting moment was at hand, he found considerable amusement
in carrying it out.

It was nothing less than making up a dummy imitation of himself asleep on
a cot in a corner of the telegraph room--as a precaution against the
"ghost" peering within to learn the effect of his "haunting."

In making the dummy Jack used a brown fur cap for the head, a glimpse of
which under an old hat looked remarkably like his own brown head. A
collection of old overalls and record books carefully arranged formed the
body, and his own shoes the feet.

When over the whole he threw his overcoat, the deception was complete.
Chuckling at the subterfuge, Jack lost no time in slipping forth for the
next step in his program.

Tiptoeing down the platform to the window whose latch he had loosened, he
softly raised it, listened, and climbing through, dropped noiselessly to
the floor. Feeling his way in the darkness amid the bales and boxes, he
reached a nook behind a piano-case he had previously noted, and settling
down, prepared to await the appearance of the "spectre."

The wait was not long. Scarcely had he made himself comfortable when from
the direction of the big packing-case came the muffled sound of a
screw-driver. Soon there followed a noise as of a board being softly
shoved aside, then a step on the floor. Simultaneously there was the
crackle of a match, and peering forth Jack momentarily made out a thin,
clean-shaven face bending over a dark-lantern. But quickly he drew back
with a start of fright as the man turned and came directly toward him.

A few feet away, however, the intruder halted, and again peering
cautiously forth Jack discovered the lantern, closely muffled, on the
floor, and beside it the dim figure of the man working with his hands at
a plank. As Jack watched, wondering, the plank came up. Laying it aside
carefully, the stranger stepped down into the opening, recovered the
lantern, and disappeared.

"Now what under the sun is he up to?" exclaimed Jack to himself.

From the platform outside came the sound of footsteps. Jack started,
listened a moment, and uttered a low cry of triumph. At last he
understood.

"Well, what a dolt I am," he laughed. "Why didn't I think of that?

"The fellow is