.

"Dear Sir: The young night operator at Midway Junction has joined
the freight-stealing gang that Corry belonged to, and if you will
look under the mattress in his room at the railroad boarding-house
you will find a watch and chain of the lot we stole at Claxton two
weeks ago. I gave it to him last Friday night. I came to Midway by
the Eastfield freight, and when I saw another operator in the
station office, I started up towards the boarding-house, and met
Orr coming down. I mention this to show my story is all straight.

"I heard he was going to give us away as soon as he had got enough
loot himself, and claim he only went in with us to get us. That is
why I am showing him up.

"Yours truly,

"W. Watts."

And the day operator _had_ worked for him that Friday evening, while he
was at the landlady's daughter's birthday party! And he _had_ come down
to the station at about the time the Eastfield night freight came in!

Jack sank back in the chair, completely crushed.

"Changed your mind, eh?" remarked the sheriff sarcastically.

Jack shook his head, but said nothing. What could he say!

"If it's 'false,' as you claim, how do you explain our finding the watch
in your room?" demanded the detective.

"I don't know. Someone must have put it there."

"Very likely. It wouldn't have crept up stairs and got under the bed
itself. And I suppose you will deny also that you saw Watts on the night
of the party, despite the fact that he could not otherwise have known the
unusual hour you came down to the station that night. Eh?"

"I never saw him after the night he called here," affirmed Jack
earnestly, but hopelessly.

"Well, you will have to prove it," declared the sheriff. And to Jack's
unspeakable horror he was informed he must be taken into custody.

* * * * *

Needless to say, the news of Jack's arrest, and of his early trial at
Eastfield, the county seat, came as a tremendous shock to Alex, at
Exeter. Of course he thoroughly disbelieved in Jack's guilt, despite the
net of circumstantial evidence which, according to the newspapers, had
been woven about his friend; and morning and afternoon he read and
re-read the papers, in the hope of something more favorable to Jack
developing.

It was through this close reading that Alex finally cam