The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1914-11-17
CHAPTER xxxvI.
Detail.

Across the plain purple shadows
we're sweeping, cIoseranked, like some
vast dark army invading the land.
pouring on over the rampart OF noun
tains in the east.
Within the rim OF hills that ringed
the plain like the Clipped and broken
fange Of titanic saucer, silence
brooded and solitude held sway-
dwarf1ng the town Of Detail that oc'
cupied the approximate middle Of the,
sagebrush waste, to proportions even
less significant than might be inferred
from the candor of Its christening.
A platform, siding, water tank,
\ wells.Fargo office and telegraph and
ticket office, backed by three rough
frame buildings; that Is Detail item
ICED completely.
Shortly after nightfall the steel rib
bons of the Santa Fe began to hum. A
headlight peered suspIciously round a
shoulder OF the eastern range, took
heart of cousage to find the plain still
wrapped in peace, and trudged stoltd-
~ toward Detail, the engine whose
eye it was pulling after it a string Of
freight cars, both flat and box.
At Detail the train paused. Its
crew alighted and engaged in anil
mated argument. Detail gathered that
the excitement was due. to the unac-
countable disappearance of the ca
beose: none seemed to have any mo-
ton as to how 1t could have broken
loose; yet missing it conspicuouely
was.
In the pause that followed, while a
report was telegraphed to headquar-
tiers and instructions returned to pro-
coed without delay, one OF the train
men spied a boyish figure lurking in
the open door of an empty box car,
Cunningly boarding this car from the
opposite side, the tratnman caught
the skull5er unawares and booted him
vaingloriously into the night.
AS the figure alighted and took to
its heels, losing itself in the darkness.
1t uttered cry of panied surprise and
protest which drew wrinkle OF as
constituent between the brows OF the
trainman.
sounded like a woman's voice." he
unused; then dismissed the suggestion
as obviously absurd.
1t was not.
Shortly after the freight train had
gone on its way-before, indeed, the
| glimmer Of its rear lights had been
lost among the western hills-ai sec
ond headlight appeared in the east,
swept swiftly across the plain and in
turn stopped at, Detail.
The second bIrd-ot,passage proved
to be locomotive drawing single
cara Pullman.
Hardly had 1t run past the switch,
however, when the brakeman dropped
down, ran quickly back to the switch
and threw it open.
Promptly the train backed on to the
siding,
AS the Pullman jolted across the
frogs the brakeman, interpostng him
self between 1t and the tender, re-
leased the coupling.
BY the time that the Pullman had
come to full stop on the siding, the
locomotive was swinging westward
like scared jackrabbit-though nc
such milk-and.watery Characterization
of the traitor passed the lips of. any
one OF the three men who presently
appeared on the Pullmans platform
and shook impotent asts in the direc'
ton taken by the fugitive engine.
When the last Of these had run tenn
porarily out of breath and biasphemy
brief silence fell. punctuated by
groans from each, and concluded by
the sound OF voice calling from the
interior OF the cara voice as strange.
Iy sonorous of tone as It was curiously
| querulous of accent,
The three men Immediately ran back
into the car and presented themselves
with countenances yariously apollo
getic,. to one who occupied a corner OF
the drawing room: man wrapped in
steamer rug and cloud Of fury.
Now when he had drained the
muddy froth of profanity from his tenn
per 1t. left clear and effervescent
well of virulent humor: the wrath OF
the valetudinarian began to vent itself
upon the hapless heads Of the trio who
stood before him.
While this was In process, the
person of boyish appearance who had
been keeping religio uelys aloof and in:
conspicuous in the background OF De.
Istail ever since that unhappy affair
with the trainman, \ stole quietly up to
the rear Of the stalled Pullman,
climbed aboard. and creeping down
The TFey o. Efearts VIII be shown
at the colonial Thsaser thursday, No