Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1915-01-09
CHAPTER XxXVI.
Detail.

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
fange of titanic saucer, silence
brooded and solitude held sway
dwarfing 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.
platform, a siding. a water tank, a
Wells-Fargo office and a telegraph and
ticket office, backed by three rough
frame buildings; that is Detail Item
lied 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 a 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 conspicuously
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 trainman caught
the skulker 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 a 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.
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-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 a locomotive drawing a 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 hac
come to a full stop on the siding, the
locomotive was swinging westward
like a scared ackrabbit-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 Pullman's platform
and shook impotent fists in the direc
ton taken by the fugitive engine.
When the last of these had run TEN
porarily out of breath and blasphemy
a 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 II was curiously
querulous of accent.
The three men Immediately ran bach
into the car and presented themselves
with countenances variously apollo
getic, to one who occupied a corner Of
the drawing room: a man wrapped In
\ a steamer rug and cloud of fury.
Now when he had drained the
muddy froth Of profanity from his tenn
per 1t left clear and efferyescent
we'll of virulent humor: the wrath o.
the valetudinarian began to vent itsel
upon the hapless heads of the trio who
stood before him.
While this was In process, the
person of boyish appearance. who hat
been keeping religiously aloof and In
conspicuous in the background of De
tail ever since that unhappy affail
with the trainman. stole quietly up Il
\ the rear OF the stalled Pullman
climbed aboard. and creeping dowr
a the aisle unceremoniously interrupted
\ the conference just as the invalid wa,
polishing of a rude but honest opinion
of the intellectual caliber OF one of tn,