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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 on the Santa Fé.

Shortly after nightfall the steel ribbons of the Santa Fé 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 stolidly 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 animated argument. Detail gathered that the excitement was due to the unaccountable disappearance of the caboose: none seemed to have any notion as to how it could have broken loose, yet missing it conspicuously was.

In the pause that followed, while a report was telegraphed to headquarters and instructions returned to proceed without delay, one of the trainmen spied a boyish figure lurking in the open door 185