“At his boarding-house. But you couldn’t get either of them to do it,” Alex declared confidently, thinking he had caught the drift of their purpose.
“Never mind what we could or what we couldn’t. Where does the day operator board? Is it far?”
Momentarily Alex had a mind to refuse to tell; then, on the thought that suspicion might be aroused if one of the robbers went to rout the day man out, he replied, “About a quarter of a mile,” and described how the house could be reached.
Again the two men held a whispered consultation, and at its conclusion the smaller man hurriedly left.
“Now I suppose you are wondering what we propose doing with the day operator,” said the tall man, with a grin, when they were alone. “Well, it’s so good I think I’ll tell you. One of the cleverest getaway schemes you ever heard of, and my own idea. Can you guess?”
Alex shook his head. “If it’s not to send the message—and which I know he won’t—I don’t know.”
The robber laughed. “You are going to send the message, and he is going to stand just outside the door here and tell us letter by letter just what you make the instruments say. See?”
Alex uttered an exclamation. And, strange as it may seem, it was not entirely of chagrin, for the striking originality and ingenuity of the plan immediately appealed to his own peculiar genius for getting over difficulties.
“And then,” continued the talkative safe-breaker, “we will tie you both in your chairs, cut the wires, then flag the night express, and depart for the East like respectable citizens, and by the time you have been found and the wires restored we will be well out of danger.