nthusiastic
haste he had pushed down the key marked "caps."

In bold, outstanding letters near the bottom of the sheet was an
historic sentence, and Joe Harned--Harned, of Brighton Academy--had
devised it.

"NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN TO COME TO THE AID OF THEIR COUNTRY!"

Joe gazed at it again for a moment, and then let his eyes travel across
the little office to where red-headed, freckle-faced, big-hearted and
impetuous Jerry Macklin was rapping away at another typewriter, and, two
feet away from Jerry, "Slim" Goodwin, "one-hundred-and-seventy pounds in
his stockinged feet, and five-feet-four in his gym suit," was working
the telegraph key with a pudgy hand.

"Jerry!" he called. "Oh, Slim! Come over here a moment, both of you. I
want to show you something."

Jerry immediately ceased typewriting, but Slim was reluctant to release
the telegraph key. However, as Joe began folding the paper in such a way
that only the last sentence showed, their aroused curiosity brought both
of them to his side.

"Read that," said Joe, trying to suppress the quiver in his voice, and
holding the paper up before them. "Read it carefully."

One lad on either side of him, they hung over Joe's shoulder and
followed his bidding.

"Right!" shouted Jerry, as he came to the last word. "Joe, you're a
wizard, and what you've written there is the truth."

"Ain't it--I mean isn't it?" added the delicate Slim Goodwin, and,
partly to hide his grammatical error, but mostly to express his
enthusiasm, he gave Joe a one-hundred-and-seventy-pound whack on the
back that sent him sliding out of the chair and half way under the
typewriter table.

"Say!" Joe remonstrated. But just then Philip Burton, telegraph operator
and genial good friend of all three of the lads, bustled into the room,
a sheaf of yellow telegrams in his hand.

"What's all the excitement?" he asked, striding toward the typewriter
just left by Jerry.

"Why," explained Slim, "Joe's just done something that means something."

"Impossible," said Mr. Burton, turning toward them with one of those
irresistible smiles which long ago had made him the boys' confidant.

"If you don't believe it, read this," commanded Jerry, thrusting the
paper before the telegrapher's eyes.

Mr. Burton read it through and then turned to the three boys again.
"Well?" he asked.

"It means what it says," explained Jerry. "Now is the time for all good
men to come to the aid of their country."