Edward Marston - The Railway Detective

Madeleine was alarmed. ‘And where is that?’ she said.

‘You will see. But when we get there, I’m afraid that I will have to divest you of that cloak. It suited my wife perfectly,’ he went on with a mournful smile, ‘but it does not become you at all.’

‘No,’ said Sholto, harshly. ‘You belong in the servant’s dress.’

‘There is no need for bad manners, Thomas,’ scolded Gilzean.

‘Miss Andrews will get no courtesy from me — not after she tried to crack my head open with a wine bottle.’

‘ Noblesse oblige .’

‘To hell with that, Humphrey! Do you know what I hope?’ he said, turning to glare at Madeleine. ‘In one way, I hope that Inspector Colbeck does turn up again.’

‘Do you?’ she said, quailing inwardly.

‘Yes, I do — because it will give me the perfect excuse to put a bullet through your head.’

Madeleine said nothing for the remainder of the journey.

While the servants were being questioned by Superintendent Tallis, the house was searched by Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming. The three men met up in the drawing room. Hands behind his back, Tallis was pulling on a cigar and standing in front of the marble fireplace. His expression revealed that he had learnt little from his interrogations.

‘It is useless,’ he said, exhaling a cloud of smoke. ‘The servants were told nothing. Even if they had been, they are so ridiculously loyal to their master that they would not betray him.’ He fixed an eye on Leeming. ‘What did you find, Sergeant?’

‘Only that Sir Humphrey has a lot more money than I do, sir,’ replied the other. ‘Parts of the house are almost palatial. It made me feel as if I was not supposed to be here.’

‘This is where those terrible crimes were hatched.’

‘Yes,’ said Colbeck, ‘and I think that I know why.’ He handed Tallis a faded newspaper. ‘This was tucked away in a desk drawer in the library. It contains a report of the death of Lady Gilzean.’

‘She was thrown from a horse. I told you that.’

‘But you did not explain how it happened, Inspector. Read the article and you will see that Sir Humphrey and his wife were out riding when the sound of a train whistle disturbed the animals. Lady Gilzean’s horse reared and she was thrown from the saddle.’

‘No wonder he detests railways,’ commented Leeming.

‘Who can blame him?’ said Tallis, reading the report. ‘It was a real tragedy. Lady Gilzean’s neck was broken in the fall. However,’ he went on, putting the newspaper on the mantelpiece, ‘it is one thing to despise the railway system but quite another to wage war against it.’

‘It’s time for the steam locomotive to strike back,’ said Colbeck.

‘What are you talking about, Inspector?’

‘This, sir.’ Colbeck held up a booklet. ‘I found this in the desk. It’s a timetable for sailings from the port of Bristol. Sir Humphrey Gilzean and his accomplice are fleeing the country.’

‘Going abroad?’ gasped Tallis. ‘Then we’ll never catch them.’

‘But we will, sir. They are only travelling by carriage, remember, and they will have to pace the horses carefully. We, on the other hand, will be able to go much faster.’ Colbeck smiled at him. ‘By train.’

When the carriage reached Bristol, the port was a veritable hive of activity. Though narrow at that point, the estuary was deep enough to accommodate the largest ships and several steamers were moored at their landing stages. Madeleine Andrews viewed it all with utter dismay. Furnished with locks, wharves and quays some 6000 feet in length, the harbour was a forest of masts through which she could see a vast number of sailors and passengers milling around. Hundreds of seagulls wove patterns in the air and added their cries to the general pandemonium. Madeleine shivered. To someone who had never travelled more than ten miles from London in her entire life, the thought of sailing across the sea induced a positive dread.

Yet she had no option. She had been warned what would happen if she dared to call for help and could not take the risk. With her hood up, she was taken aboard between Sir Humphrey Gilzean and Thomas Sholto, and — to her astonishment — was described as Lady Gilzean, leaving the country on her husband’s passport. Before she knew what was happening, Madeleine was taken below to a cabin, where she was tied up and gagged. Sholto stood over her.

‘If we have any trouble from you,’ he threatened, cupping her chin in his palm, ‘I’ll throw you overboard.’

‘You’ll do nothing of the kind,’ said Gilzean, easing him away from her. ‘Miss Andrews came to our rescue at the house. Without her, we would now be in custody. Show some appreciation, Thomas.’

‘Leave me alone with her — and I will.’

‘Come, you need some fresh air.’

‘What I need is five minutes with her.’

Gilzean took him by the lapel. ‘Did you hear what I said?’

Sholto obeyed with reluctance. After tossing a sullen glance at Madeleine, he left the cabin. Gilzean paused at the open door.

‘I am sorry that you got caught up in all this,’ he said with a note of genuine apology, ‘but there was no help for it. Had your father chosen a different occupation, you would not be here now.’ There were yells from above and the sound of movement on the deck. ‘We are about to set sail,’ he noted with satisfaction. ‘Where is Inspector Colbeck now?’

Madeleine could not speak but there was panic in her eyes. Gilzean went out and shut the door behind him, turning a key in the lock. He had been unfailingly polite to her and had shielded her from Sholto, but he was still taking her as a prisoner to a foreign country. As the ship rocked and the wind began to flap its canvas, she knew that they had cast off. Madeleine was out of Inspector Colbeck’s reach now. All that she could do was to resort to prayer once more.

A few minutes later, she heard the sound of a key in the lock. Thinking that it would be Thomas Sholto, she closed her eyes and tensed instinctively, fearing that he had slipped back to get his revenge for what had happened in the wine cellar. But the person who stepped into the cabin was Robert Colbeck and the first thing that he did was to remove her gag. When she opened her eyes, Madeleine let out a cry of relief. As Colbeck began to untie the ropes that held her, tears of joy rolled down her cheeks.

‘How ever did you find us?’ she asked.

‘I took the precaution of bringing my Bradshaw with me.’

‘The railway guide?’

‘A steam train will always outrun the best horses, Miss Andrews,’ he said, untying her legs and setting her free. ‘And I was determined that nobody was going to take you away from me.’

Madeleine flung herself into his arms and he held her tight until her sobbing slowly died down. He then stood back to appraise her.

‘Have they harmed you in any way?’

‘No, Inspector. But one of them keeps threatening to.’

‘His name is Thomas Sholto,’ said Colbeck. ‘We waited until we saw them come up on deck. There was no point in trying to apprehend them while they had you in their grasp. Stay here, Miss Andrews,’ he went on, moving to the door. ‘I’ll be back in due course.’

‘Be careful,’ she said. ‘They are both armed.’

‘They are also off guard. Excuse me.’

Standing at the bulwark, Gilzean and Sholto ignored the people who were waving the ship off from the shore and congratulated themselves on their escape. Gilzean was honest.

‘It was a Pyrrhic victory,’ he conceded. ‘I kept my promise to Lucinda and struck back at the railway, but it means, alas, that I am parted from her for a while. No matter, Thomas. I will be able to slip back from France in time. Meanwhile, we have money enough to live in great comfort and anonymity.’