Imperial Valley press., 1911-11-28
A Mystery In
A reight Car
By ADOLPH SNYDER
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation, 1871.

i au DFakeIDan on 1TelSHt Train.
One day during the winter season.
when we had come to a stop, ! was
walking alongside the train and saw
a thin smoke coming out from under
one of the cars Thinking it to come
from hot box, ] stopped to examine
the truck, but the running gear was
as cool as q cucumber. Then, looking
up, noticed small tin pipe protrud-
ing from the bottom Of the car
through which smoke was coming in
little puffs.
well. I'll be jinged"' l said to my
self Here's freight car. sealed with
lead. that hasn't been opened since it
started three days ago, and steam
or have tumbled off the brake wheel
where l was sitting Il spell ago.
l stopped a tri6e lower and rraned
my neck in little further in order
to get better view. There was tue
pipe. evidently, a par: OF a leader from
a gutter be!oG&in. - III" roof of
house Ii extended Il few inches
downward. then turned With an elbow
the second parl extending about Il
foot rparwar;. As innEci the putl>
cont inuea aS regular rs thoSe coming
sronl a locomotive maxim. ii steady
gait
what 70 do ! didn't know. was
afraid to Mostly the conducto" for fear
I'd fnd uGt that Ia iIai stroke and
saw things yhat Gi3a't exist. Some
thing occurred in~; thesi that made
me think "a surely gone daft heard
a gir!'S @i~@,p.
: re wasn't aiJ connection between
4 steam engine aad "a zeifi shnt up in
| box car. especially Il sealed box ear.
but there Was good deal to excite
curiosity. stopped worrying about
myself ana beGau - wonder what
there was inside that car. stood off,
looked at it and walked an around If
A freight tIain * made - Of differ
ent kinds OF cayS. ana tbs ear W&s eS
pecially different trnm II" others. 1t
looked as though il might nave been a
caboose turned into i ia,H IAe thing
most noticeable about it was Il door at
one enc Why hadn't noticed this
before | don't Know unless It WAS be
cause the end was only about two feet
from the end of another car.
saw that there was or had been
lock en- the door There wasn't any
knob. but a nail had been pat through
the screw hole of the steel piece on
which the knob had been fixed. |
climbed up on the coupling and tried
to turn the nail to open the door. l
didn't succeed. | lis:ened, but every
| thing was still. But didn't forget that
| giggle. and pretty soon ! knocked. In
a few moments heard whispers with
in. Then all of sudden the door was
pulled open, and there stood boy and
q girl.
Besides these. l got view OF the
car. There was carpet on it. the
worse for wear: in one corner was a
| mattress with bedclothing; in the cen
! ter was pine table. and at one side
was a cook stove. And l noticed that
| the stovepipe was run down instead Of
up or horizontal and passed through
hole In the floor"
/ please don't give US away" said
the girl, going for me with q pair Of
hue eyes not many cO1ld resist.
You'd better let me come in an
| svered. If the conductor or any Of
the train hands should come along
! there'd be no need of giving you away"
went inside and shut the door after
me. Then asked. win you be good
enough to tell me what this meansY'
''We're a bride and groom" said the
young feller. who couldn't have been
over seventeen years cid.
-On snr wedding "trip" the girl
! added.
"A bride and groom on your wedding
trip~ ! exclaimed How did you git
! In hereY'
"i'h tell you all about IT," sai6 the
boy. Were not only On our wedding
trip, but we're 4 rusa way csnRle"
Are yea sure you're not = pa1r Of
escaped funaticsr
The girl laughed: the fellow leukeG
kind of queer and talked On.
I'VE were engaged. bot neither her
dad nor mine would let US git mar
ried tn We were older. had 4 sserk-
ship IN railroad freight hsuse. and
/ managed 10 GIT boid Of this ear. and
one night when you men were making
up this train give the engineer q
signal to hook up against 1t. and the
next time be backed up against a car
this was in the train. ia fixed the
door and put in the bridal furniture"
''The bridal furniture!" ! said. look
her, Is it?''
"Well. It's all we got" he answered
what have you had to eatT
asked.
''Bread. bacon. eggs and q few sthee
things. There's our stove. We get