“Well, what do you think of that stunt, youngster?” he chuckled. “Did you get the instruments?”
“Yes. I was out here to learn whether the light of a lantern I found could be seen.”
“Good head! No; it doesn’t show.
“And come on! Here the beggars are again!” West led the way inside, and closed the door behind them.
“Now what, my boy?”
“A table first. Here, the very thing,” said Jack, making towards a long feed-box at the rear of the barn.
As they cleared its top of a pile of harness West asked, “Just what is the scheme here, youngster? I don’t think I understand it.”
“Oh, simple enough. I’ll just run the wires out through that knot-hole, and connect one to the fence and the other to the ground.”
“Simple! It looks different to me,” declared the reporter admiringly. “All right, go ahead. I’ll get down on this box and grind out the rest of my story.”
Already Jack was at work sorting over the odd pieces of wire he had brought. Finding two suitable lengths, and straightening them out, he quickly connected them to the instruments, placed the instruments in a convenient position on the top of the box, and thrust the wire ends through the knot-hole. Then, hastening outside to the rear of the barn, he proceeded to connect one of them to the same strand of the fence wire to which the telegraph line was secured a mile distant. The other he drove deep into the damp earth beneath the edge of the building. And, theoretically, the circuit was complete.