simply out beneath the platform, making sounds against the
under side of the planking--probably with a stick!"

[Illustration: JACK MADE OUT A THIN, CLEAN-SHAVEN FACE BENDING OVER
A DARK-LANTERN.]

Jack was still chuckling delightedly over this simple explanation of the
mysterious "walking" when the noise ceased, and the light of the lantern
returned.

On reappearing, the unknown dragged after him a long pole. As Jack
watched, puzzling over its use, the "spectre" hoisted the pole to his
shoulder, cautiously picked his way amid the freight to the telegraph-room
partition, and mounted a large box.

And then, while Jack fairly shook with internal laughter, he laboriously
raised the pole, and began bumping and scraping it up and down the under
side of the roof.

"Natural explanations!" bubbled Jack through his handkerchief. "And
imagine anyone being frightened at it--beating it for home!"

When the man on the box had concluded his second "demonstration," and
descended, Jack had cause to thank himself for his precaution in leaving
the dummy. Evidently puzzled at the silence in the operating-room, the
man placed his eye to the knot-hole in the partition, and peered through.
Muttering something in surprise, he listened closely, and looked again,
while Jack looked on, shaking, and holding his mouth. Apparently at last
satisfied that the "operator" within was asleep at his post, the intruder
turned about and threw a shaft of light up toward the wires of the loop.
Expectantly Jack waited. Had he also guessed right here?

But to his disappointment, after a brief debate with himself, the "ghost"
muttered, "If he's asleep, what's the use?" And catching up the pole, he
returned it to the hole in the floor, and replaced the plank.

Then, in final confirmation of Jack's deductions, the intruder turned his
attention to the packages of merchandise about him, speedily selected a
box, and proceeded to open it.

For several hours the unsuspecting freight robber worked, frequently
returning to the crack in the partition to assure himself that the
negligent "operator" there was still in the land of dreams, each time to
Jack's great amusement. And finally, having secured all the booty he
could handle, and having carefully closed the cases from which it had
been taken, he moved the plunder into his own box, crept in after; again
came the squeak of the screw-driver--and the robbery was complete.

At once Jack crept from his place of