“Hurrah! We win! We win!” cried West, and Jack, springing to the key, whirled off a succession of H’s. “H, H, H, ON! Rush! H, H—”
“I, I, H! Where have you been? What’s the matter?” It was the chief, and the words came sharply and angrily.
“The wire was cut both sides of the village,” shot back Jack. “I think it was Raub and Simpson’s work. And two roughs chased me out of the office with a revolver. Hired by them, I suppose. I’ve fixed up an office in the barn, and am sending for a mile through a wire fence, to bridge the cut. Orr.”
For a moment the chief was too amazed to reply. Then rapidly he said: “Orr, you are a trump! But come ahead with that report now. And make the best time you ever made in your life. I’ll copy you myself.”
And there, in a corner of the big barn, by the dim light of the lantern, and to the strange accompaniment of munching cattle and restlessly stamping horses, West wrote as though his life depended upon it, and Jack sent as he had never sent before. And exactly an hour later the young operator sent “30” (the end) to one of the speediest feats of press work on that year’s records of the Hammerton office.
Though it was 3 A. M. when Jack got back to Hammerton, he found the chief operator at the station to meet him. “I had to come down, to congratulate you,” said the chief. “That was one of the brightest bits of work all-round that I’ve heard of for years.”
“But did we beat them?” asked Jack.
“We assuredly did. For didn’t you know? Those two roughs later went up and cleaned out the other office—the very men who had hired them to disable us! And what with having had a slow-working wire previously, the ‘Bulletin’ didn’t get in more than five hundred words. We gave the ‘Star’ over three solid columns.”
The manager’s congratulation the following morning was as enthusiastic as that of the chief. “And as a practical appreciation, Jack,” he added, “we are going to give you a full month’s vacation, with salary. We think you earned it.”
When Jack returned to his wire one of the first remarks he heard was from Alex Ward, at Bixton.