After several anxious minutes of waiting, I heard him come back on the line. "I had to trace this thing across the frame," he said. I recognized that for what it was: an annoyed complaint that I had made him chase wires a considerable distance through a complicated maze running along the main distribution frame. He also told me, "On one side, I just hear a thousand-cycle tone." That was weird. "On the other, I get a dial tone."