Zeisler, and would be on the scene within half an hour. All of which
report proved true, the engines arriving on the dot--and by daylight the
last of the several different fires were under control, and the safety of
the town was assured.

Needless to say, Jack's name played an important part in the dramatic
newspaper accounts of the conflagration--nor to add that he was the
envied hero of every other lad in town for weeks to come.

The final and particular result of the affair, however, was the offer to
Jack of a good position in the large commercial telegraph office at
Hammerton, which he at last induced his parents to permit him to accept.

IV

THE OTHER TINKER ALSO MAKES GOOD

One evening shortly after the beginning of the summer holidays Alex was
chatting over the wire with Jack, who was now a full-fledged operator at
Hammerton, when the despatching office abruptly broke in and called
Bixton.

"I, I, BX," answered Alex.

"Is young Ward there?" clicked the instruments.

"This is 'young Ward.'"

"Say, youngster, would you care to do a couple of weeks' vacation relief
at Hadley Corners, beginning next Monday? The man there wants to get off
badly, and we have no one here we can send."

"Most certainly I would," replied Alex, promptly.

"OK then. We'll count on you. I'll send a pass down to-night," said the
despatcher.

Thus it came about that the following Monday morning Alex alighted at the
little crossing depot known as Hadley Corners, and for the second time
found himself, if but temporarily, in full charge of a station.

Entering the little telegraph room, he announced his arrival to the
despatcher at "X."

"Good," clicked the sounder. "And now, look here, Ward. Don't do any
tinkering with the instruments while you are there. We don't want a
repetition of the mix-up you got the wire into at BX through your joking
a month or so ago."

The joke referred to was a hoax Alex had played on his father the
previous First of April. Through an arrangement of wires beneath the
office table, by which with his foot, unseen, he could make the
instruments above click as though worked from another office, he had
called his father to the wire, and posing as the despatcher, had severely
reprimanded him for some imaginary mistake in a train order. It had been
"all kinds of a lark," until, unfortunately, the connections became
disarranged, tying up the entire eastern end of the line for half an
hour.

At