It was a collision on a high trestle.

The train crumpled up, and some of the cars fell over sideways and fell off, ninety feet into the bottom of a dry creek.

It was dry, though there was a pool of water just ten feet in diameter and eighteen inches deep.

All the rest was dry boulders, and I bull's-eyed that pool.
"This is the way it was.

I had just got on my shoes and pants and shirt, and had started to get out of the bunk.