Читать книгу The Riddle of the Rail - Fred M. White - Страница 7

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"Excellent," Norcliff said. "But, before we go any farther, what does your paper propose to do about it?"

"Well, you don't suppose they are going to keep the original information in the office safe, do you?" Jagger grinned. "It is another scoop for the 'Bulletin,' and don't you forget it."

"My dear young friend," Norcliff said, very gently. "Your paper can have all the kudos that it wants. But you, with your ambitious outlook on life, can hardly expect to benefit. It's all very well to argue that the clue of the laundry mark was due to you, and, to a certain extent, it was. I ought to have thought about it myself, and, no doubt, I should have done so in time."

"But, all the same, you didn't," Jagger pointed out.

"Oh, I am willing to give you all that, but what I want at the present moment is to keep that information from the public. It would be a real misfortune if the 'Daily Bulletin' people came out to-morrow with one of its flaming headlines announcing the fact that some laundry person had identified the mark on the collar and that the police were hot upon the trail. Can't you see how that is going to ruin my work to say nothing of giving the murderer a warning to the effect that he had overlooked a most important detail whilst he was getting rid of the body?"

"Yes, I see all that," the little reporter said grudgingly.

"Very well, then. And perhaps you will also see that your usefulness comes to an end directly the 'Bulletin' publishes that information. You won't get the credit for it, because your people will merely allude to the work of their local representative. Whereas, if the information is kept secret for a day or two, then I shall probably be able to put a good deal more in your way. In fact, if you like, and the proprietors of your paper are willing, you can come along with me as a sort of special commissioner, and I will see to it that your journal gets in front of all its rivals. Otherwise, I shall have to appeal to the Home Office for an order prohibiting the 'Daily Bulletin' from publishing the information."

The little reporter was not slow to see that which was being offered him. Nor did he fail to weigh up the chances in his favor.

"Yes, that is very good of you. What do you want me to do? I mean, do immediately?"

"In the first instance, go down to the hotel office and ask them to put you through to your newspaper. Tell the local exchange that your business is connected with the Westport murder, and that you are acting on behalf of Scotland Yard. If you do that you will get through to them in a quarter the time."

"Number, please," the little man grinned. "I mean the number which Scotland Yard gives anywhere when they want the line held up at this end. See what I mean?"

Norcliff gave the talismanic number that Scotland Yard always uses in such cases so that Jagger found himself talking to his own head office in little less than five minutes. He came back presently, beaming with delight.

"It's all right," he said. "I got on to one of the big men and he saw the point at once. I asked him to send somebody round to the laundry and tell the man who called with that information that he was on no account to mention what he had discovered."

"Now, that was very thoughtful of you," Norcliff said. "As to the other matter, are you coming with us?"

"You bet," the little man said emphatically. "Any time you like to give me a call I shall be ready."

"So that's all right," Norcliff said. "I think the best thing you can do is to go as far as Brendham and wait for us there. We are coming up the line almost at once, that is, as soon as I have heard from the people here exactly what happened to the goods trucks between the starting point and Westport. You can find out, if you like, who it was who consigned the foods."

The lame reporter went off in a happy frame of mind, leaving Norcliff and his companion together.

"What's the next move?" Trumble asked.

"Well, the next move is to cover the ground between Brendham and here," Norcliff explained. "I had all the figures and a general time-table of the goods train delivered here before you came down to breakfast. I know exactly what time that train left Brendham on the Thursday before Whitsuntide, and where it was held up. It didn't go very far, to begin with; in fact the first stoppage was at Abbotsbury, which is not more than 25 miles from the big fruit centre. And there the vans were shunted into a siding for the night and, so far as I can make out, all the following day. Then, again, there was a delay of a good many hours at Gloucester, and much the same thing happened at Bristol. We are going to work backwards, with Bristol as our first stop."

But, as it turned out, there was little to be gained in the course of their inquiries in the big Western city. There the train had undoubtedly been held up, but investigations showed that it would have been impossible for anybody to convey a bulky thing like a human body, even under cover of the darkness, across the siding, and deposit the corpse under the tarpaulin. For here the siding had been brilliantly lighted, an essentially necessary course, seeing that there were some score of lines and rails, and that, moreover, shunting operations were taking place day and night.

Norcliff stood in the midst of those shining rails and pointed this out to his companion.

"It could not possibly have been done here," he said. "I can't see anybody conveying a body into a big yard like this with all those electrics turned on. Besides, there were scores of men working here, and there would have been positive danger to anybody attempting to cross those lines without knowledge of the workings of a big goods siding. And, even if the murderer had known all that, he must have been a giant in strength to carry a human body, all dead weight, and hide it in that van. Therefore, I think we can rule out Bristol and get on to Gloucester without delay."

But Gloucester turned out to be quite as hopeless as Bristol had proved. The goods train had been detained there in much the same condition, though, perhaps, on a comparatively smaller scale. But, at any rate, the scale was large enough to convince Norcliff that they had not yet reached the scene where the murderer had succeeded in getting rid of the body of his victim.

"Another blank," Norcliff said. "Now on to Abbotsbury. If we don't get something definite there, then I shall come to the conclusion that we are on the wrong track altogether, and that, moreover, the murderer must have been working with the aid of accomplices."

"I don't think so," Trumble said softly. "I can't see for a moment, a man who had worked out so cunning and skilful a crime calling in anybody to help him. No, I think that we shall find the key to that side of the mystery in Abbotsbury."

It was nearly dark when the two reached Abbotsbury, so that they decided to postpone further investigations till the following morning.

Those in authority at Abbotsbury were quite ready and willing to give Norcliff all the information in their power. A goods train for the West had been shunted on to a siding there fairly early on the evening of Whit-Saturday, having got as far as there from Brendham, which was the point of dispatch, and then been held up by the excursion traffic. In other words, the fruit van had been in a siding at Abbotsbury for the best part of twenty-four hours, before there had been any chance of dispatching it farther.

"I don't exactly follow what that means," Norcliff said to the goods foreman who had been detailed to assist him. "Let us have it quite clear. Am I to understand that the fruit train got no farther than here, and that it spent the whole of Saturday night and perhaps the best part of the following day in one of your sidings?"

"That's it, sir," the foreman said. "I can show you the exact spot where the fruit van stood."

"All right; come along, then," Norcliff said.

They set out down the line for the best part of half a mile. By the time the foreman pulled up, they were well clear of the station itself, and standing on a long siding with just one line of rails that seemed to be terminating almost in the open country. Certainly, it was quiet and lonely enough there, with a high-road on one side of the line and, on the other, four or five houses of the small villa type standing in their own ground.

"This looks rather more like it," Norcliff said, turning to his companion. "Quiet enough for anything. Nobody about after dark and, unless my eyes deceive me, the gardens of those houses abut actually, on to the sidings themselves. Yes, I begin to see my way. Is that a public house farther down the road?"

The foreman informed Norcliff that it was.

"And a very respectable place, too sir," he said. "But they don't do much trade in the ordinary way, because it is in rather a quiet, lonely spot. But there is some very good trout fishing in the neighborhood, and lots of gents from London come down here and stay at the White Hart for the trout."

"Oh, do they?" Norcliff asked. "I am rather fond of a day's fishing myself. I wonder if they would put us up."

"I feel sure they would, sir," the foreman replied. "The place is a little bigger than you think."

"We'll take rooms there for a day or two, doctor." Norcliff said, as he turned to the man by his side, and placed a ten-shilling Treasury note in his hand. "We shall not want you any more, my friend; at least, not for the present, at any rate."

The foreman went back to his work, and Norcliff and Trumble went through a gate into the road where the public house stood.

"We are on the right track, for a dollar," Norcliff said. "The very spot. No chance of interruption after dark, and the place as quiet as the grave before midnight. Unless I am greatly mistaken, one of those quiet little villa residences could tell a story. Yes, I think so. We'll just be two fishermen looking for a likely stream, and mine host of the White Hart will do the rest."