New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1914-12-02


the explosion of a cannon. 1t collapsed
upon itself like thing of pasteboard
That it had been constructed OF
more solid stuff was abundantly
proved by the shower of timbers, spin.
tiers and broken iron that rained about
the heads of the fugitives.
For all that, the gods smiled upon
them for their courage: they escaped
without a scratch.
CHAPTER xxxv,.
s.... Detail. 49,, -
Across the plain purple shadows
were sweeping, close-ranked, like some
vast dark army invading the. land,
pouring on over the rampant of noun.
tains in the east.
Within the rim of hills that ringed
the plain like the Clipped and broken
f1ange of titanic saucer. silence
brooded and solitude held sway
! dwarfing the town of Detail that oc.
cnpied the approximate middle of the
sagebrush waste, to proportions even
less significant than might be inferred
from the candor of it's christening.
A platform, a siding. water tank, a
Wells Fargo Office and a 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 courage to find the plain still
! wrapped in peace, and trudged stolid-
ly toward Detail, the engine whose
eye it was pulling after it string Of
freight cars, both fiat and box.
At Detail the train paused. It's
crew alighted and engaged in ami
mated argument. Detail gathered that
the, excitement was due to the unac-
countable disappearance of the ca
boose; none seemed to have any no
ton as to how it could have broken
loose; yet missing it consplcuously
| was. ::
In the pause that followed, while a
report was +elegraphed to headquar-
ters 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 trainman caught
the skulker unawares and booted him
vaingloriously into the night. ;: :
AS the figure alighted and took to
it's heels, losing itself in the darkness,
1t uttered cry Of panied surprise and
protest which drew a wrinkle of as
tcnishment 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 it's way-before, indeed, the
glimmer of it's rear lights had been
| lost among the western hills-a Sec
ond headlight appeared in the east,
swept swiftly across the plain and in
turn stopped at Detail
The second bird,of-passage proved
to be locomotive drawingsa single
cara Pullman
Hardly had it 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, interposing him
self between it 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 ackrabbit-th6ugh no
such milk-and-watery characteristic
Of the traitor passed the lips of any
one Of the three men who presently
! appeared on the Pullman's platform
and shook impotent fists in the direc-
ton taken by the fugitive engine.
When the last Of these had run tenn
porarily out Of breath and blasphemy,
a brief silence fell, punctuated by
sroans from each, and concluded by
the sound of a voice calling from the
interior of the car a voice as strange
ly sonorous of tone as 1t was curiously
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