that sure?"

"I am absolutely positive," declared Alex.

"Then you come right ahead," was the decisive response. "Come down here
by the first train in the morning, and bring two or three other
operators, and the necessary instruments.

"And if you can prove what you claim, I'll guarantee that your friend is
clear."

"Hurrah! Then he is clear!" cried Alex joyously.

Accompanied by three other operators from the Exeter office, and with a
set of telegraph instruments and a convenient dry-battery, Alex reached
the court-room at Eastfield at 10 o'clock the following morning.

The trial, which had attracted a crowd that packed the building to its
capacity, already had neared its conclusion. Jack's demeanor, and that of
his father, who was beside him, quickly informed Alex that matters were
looking serious for his chum. Confidently he waited, however, and at last
the court clerk arose and called his name.

The preliminary questions were passed, and Jack's attorney at once
proceeded. "Now Alex," he said, "this letter here, which has been put in
evidence, declares that the writer, Watts, went to Midway Junction by the
Eastfield freight on the Friday night in question, and that he then met
the defendant coming down to the station from his boarding-house, and
gave him the watch.

"Have you anything to say to this?"

"Yes, sir. Jack Orr was at the telegraph instruments in the Midway
Junction station several minutes before the Eastfield freight reached
there that night. It was he who reported her coming over the wire to me
at Exeter."

The lawyer for the prosecution looked up with surprise, then smiled in
amusement, while Jack and his father started, and exchanged glances of
new hope.

"You are positive it was the defendant you heard over the wire?" asked
Mr. Brown.

"Positive, sir."

"If necessary could you give a demonstration here in court of your
ability to identify the defendant's transmitting on a telegraph
instrument?"

"Yes, sir, I could."

When the lawyer for the other side arose to cross-examine Alex he smiled
somewhat derisively.

"You are a friend of the defendant, are you not?" he asked significantly.

"Yes, sir; and so know his sending over the wire unusually well,"
responded Alex, cleverly turning the point of the question.

The lawyer shrugged his shoulders, and put the next question with
sarcasm. "And, now, do you mean to stand there and tell this court that
the clicks--the purely mechanica