gly: "Stop dat! Stop dat, or I shoot!"

"Go ahead, Al," said the foreman, looking down. "He hasn't a gun." But
even as he spoke there was a flash and a report, and a thud just over
Alex's head.

"Yes, stop! Stop!" cried the foreman. "Stop. They've got us. No use being
foolhardy."

Leaning over, he addressed the men below. "Look here," he said,
persuasively, "can't you fellows see that Big Tony is only using you to
make trouble for me, because I fired him for being drunk? As I told you
at first, everything he has said is untrue. Why won't you believe it?"

The men were silent a moment, then one of them addressed Alex. "Boy, is
dat true?"

"Every word of it," said Alex, earnestly. "And I would have heard all
about it at the station if they had intended cutting your wages, or
bringing others here to take your places."

"Den I believe it," said the Pole.

The man with the pistol returned it to his pocket. "I am sorry I shoot,"
he said.

"And now, what about the train?" inquired the foreman, quickly. "Did you
touch the switch?"

In the look of guilt the foreigners turned on one another he saw the
alarming answer. Whipping out his watch, he held it to the light.

"Alex," he said, sharply, "you have just ten minutes to catch that train
at the Junction! If you don't get her she's gone! There's not time now to
get down to the main line from here to flag her!"

Before he had ceased speaking Alex had his cap over the light and was
once more flashing an urgent "BX! BX! BX!" while below the foreigners
looked on, now with an anxiety equal to that of the two on the tower.

"BX! Qk! Qk!" flashed the lantern.

The station light disappeared. "Got 'em!" cried Alex.

"Just tell them first to stop Twenty at the Junction," said the foreman.

"Right," responded Alex, and while the rest watched in profound silence,
he signaled:

"STOP NUMBER 20 AT JUNCTION. SPUR SWITCH IS THROWN. GOT IT?"

As Alex read off the promptly flashed "OK," the foreman sprang to his
feet and gave vent to a joyful hurrah of relief that echoed again in the
clearing and woods. Then, as Alex recovered the lantern, he caught him
under one arm, carried him down the ladder, and there, despite his
objections, hoisted him to the shoulders of two of the now enthusiastic
Poles, and all set off jubilantly down the spur for the switch, and home.

And an hour later Alex's father and mother, anxiously awaiting him at the
station, discovered his approach carried