The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1915-02-11

| JuuItn OncoupIIn9 inc OapooSos
truding from the window of the spe.
calls engine, one on either side.
At venture, she snatched off her
coat and waved it wildly in the air.
An arm answered the signal from
| one window of the pursuing locomo-
! tive.
Marrophat, of course!
She turned and peered ahead. The
freight was approaching trestlc that
spanned a wide and shallow gully.
So much the better!
Dropping down again between the
cars, she set herself to solve the prob.
lem Of uncoupiing che ca6oose.
In this she was successful just as
! the last car rolled out on the trestle
Its own impetus carried the caboose
| to the middle Of the trestle before it
stopped.
AS this happened, Alan and Barcus,
already warned Of an emergency by
the slowing down of the car, and for
some time alive to the fact that the
special was again in pursuit, leaped
out upon the ties and helped Rose to
| alight. .4
Already the last of the freight was
whisking off the trestle, its crew thus
far unconscious of their loss.
And behind them the special was
plunging forward at undated speed.
There was no time to execute their
plan Of the first desperate instant-to
run along the ties to safety on tho
solid earth: the distance was too
great; they could not possibly make it
With common impulse the two men
glanced down to the bottom Of the
gully, then looked at each other with
eyes informed by common inspiration.
Barcus announced in breath:
"Thirty feet-not more"
Alan replied: "Can you hold the
weight Of the two of us for half min
| ute?"
Barcus shrugged: II can try. We
might as well-even if I can't"
While speaking, he was lowering
| himself between the ties.
"All right" he announced briefly.
With a word to Rose, Alan slipped
down beside Barcus, shifted his hold
to the body of the latter, and climbed
down over him until he was supported
solely by the grasp of his two hands
on Barcus' ankles.
| Instantly Rose followed him, slip
ping like snake down over the two
men till she in turn hung by her grasp
on Alan's ankles, then released her
hold and dropped the balance Of the
distance to the ground, scant ten
feet, landing without injury.
A thought later Alan dropped lightly
to her side, staggered trifle, recov-
| cred and dragged her out of the way.
Barcus fell with heavy thump and
went upon his back, but demonstrated
his lack of injury by Immediately pick
ing himself up and joining the others
in a mad scramble for safety.
Overhead the special engine, hur-
| thing onward like some titanic bolt,
struck the caboose with crash like
the explosion of q cannon. It collapsed
upon itself like thing Of pasteboard.
That it had been constructed of
more solid stuff was abundantly
proved by the shower Of timbers, splin-
ters 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 q scratch.
CHAPTER xxxvI.
Detail.
Across the plain purple shadows
we're 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 hinged
the plain like the Clipped and broken
hange of a 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. siding, water tank, 9