Placing the instruments again on the table, he found a piece of loose wire that would reach from the instruments, out through the window, to the rails; ran out and quickly connected it to a rail joint, and, darting back, connected the other end to the instruments. Instantly there was a sharp downward click. The line was closed!
Alex could not suppress a quick “Thank Heaven!” and, trembling with excitement, he seized the key and began swiftly calling the despatcher. “X, X, X, HC,” he called. “X, X—”
He felt the line open, and closed his own key. Then, in surprise, he read: “So you have been monkeying with the wires there after all, have you? Now look here—”
Quickly Alex interrupted, and shot back: “Train robbers are after the Overland. They held me up, and cut the wires both sides of the station. I got free, and have made a connection through the rails—HC.”
For a moment the line remained silent, while at his end of the wire the despatcher sat bolt upright in his chair, eyes and mouth wide open. But in another moment the despatcher had recovered himself, and, springing back to the key, began madly calling Broken Gap.
“B, B, B, X!” he called. “B, B, X! Qk! Qk!”
BUT THE RESPONSE CLICK DID NOT COME.