17! Hold her!"

Then, "To X--This is Jack, Al. I'm in the woods about four miles from
Claxton. We found the freight thieves, but they have Boyle prisoner. Ask
the chief to have 17 take on a posse at CX and rush them here. I'll wait
here, and lead them back. If they are quick they'll capture the whole
gang."

"OK! OK! Good for you," shot back Alex. The wire was silent a moment,
then Jack heard the order go on to Claxton as desired.

Twenty-five minutes later, waiting in the darkness on the track, Jack saw
the headlight of the fast-coming freight. The engineer, on the lookout,
discovered him, pulled up, and a moment after Jack was off through the
woods followed by two officers and several of the train crew.

When they reached the farm, lights were still moving about in the barn.
Stealthily the party made for it, and surrounded it.

"How would you like to lead the way in, Jack?" whispered the sheriff as
they paused before the door. "That would be only fair, after the trick
Watts played on you."

Jack caught at the idea delightedly, and all being ready, boldly threw
open the barn door and entered with drawn revolver, followed by the
sheriff.

The four occupants were so completely taken by surprise that for a moment
they stood immovable about a box of dry-goods they had been repacking.

"How do you do, Mr. Watts," said Jack, smiling. "This is my friend the
sheriff, and the barn is surrounded. I think you would be foolish not to
give up."

"Yes, hands up!" crisply ordered the sheriff. And slowly the four pairs
of hands went into the air, and the entire balance of the long-successful
gang of freight thieves were prisoners.

It was Jack himself who rushed off to the house and freed Detective
Boyle. A half hour later, with one of the robbers' own wagons filled with
a great quantity of recovered stolen goods, the sheriff escorted his
prisoners back to the railroad, and before daylight they were in the jail
at Eastfield.

Jack received considerable attention because of his part in the capture,
and the affair still forms one of the popular yarns among trainmen on
that division of the Middle Western.

XV

THE DUDE OPERATOR

Alex Ward, like most vigorous, manly boys of his type, had a fixed
dislike for anything approaching foppishness, especially in other boys.
Consequently when on reporting at the Exeter office one evening he was
introduced to Wilson Jennings, Alex treated him with but little more than
nec