Johnny Swanson - Eleanor Updale [70]
Johnny had brought the ‘J. W. Morgan’ envelope with him so that if he were stopped by anyone at the sanatorium he could say that he had come to visit her, and at the very least buy himself some time. But what if the nurses talked to him now? What if they asked him who he was and where he was going? What if they made a fuss of him so that he didn’t get a chance to look round the sanatorium secretly, to try to find out what was going on there? Or, worse still, what if they didn’t believe him, and sent him back to Stambleton when he was so close to Craig-y-Nos? He decided to stay out of the nurses’ way for as long as he could. Reluctantly he gently let the door close again, and walked up and down the platform, trying to keep warm.
A porter cleared his throat and spat onto the rails. Haemoptysis, thought Johnny, remembering Dr Langford again. In the cold, his excitement was waning, and the sight of the nurses and the porter’s sputum had reminded him why the sanatorium existed. It wasn’t just Mrs Langford’s prison. Craig-y-Nos Castle must be full of people with a deadly disease. For the first time on this adventure Johnny was frightened. Until now he hadn’t let himself admit that if he went to Craig-y-Nos he might catch TB. He might die. It was stupid to put himself in contact with all those germs.
Now he wanted to go home. After all the bravado and exhilaration that had buoyed him up through the journey so far, Johnny was at last struck by the madness of this whole adventure. He was only a boy. He was in unfamiliar territory, and he didn’t really know what he was looking for. He might meet a murderer: that Welshman on the phone had already threatened him. Why had he ever come up with the idea of trying to investigate Craig-y-Nos on his own? Hutch should never have allowed him to set off in the first place. You could tell that he wasn’t used to looking after children. His mother would never have let him go.
His mother. That was why he was doing it. Johnny might be afraid; he might long to go back to Stambleton; but he knew that if he did, someone else could die. Winnie was in real danger. He was facing a risk – but her fate looked certain. Johnny imagined what would happen if he failed to find Mrs Langford. Although he was staring at columns of figures on the railway timetable, all he could see was the hangman putting a noose round his mother’s neck. He couldn’t get the image out of his mind. He knew he had to carry on.
When the little train came in, Johnny watched to see which carriage the nurses chose and then got into the other one. He was all alone. As the train rattled along, the scenery grew ever greener and more dramatic, with waterfalls gushing down rocky hills. Occasionally Johnny caught a glimpse of a mighty building nestling halfway up the valley. Part of it was made of sparkling glass, the rest of solid brown-grey stone. It had two towers: one tall and pointed with big white clock-faces on every side, and a stout square one with battlements on top, like a castle in a history book. Although it was early afternoon, the winter light was already fading, and the building looked sinister in the gloom. It must be Craig-y-Nos.
Chapter 34
AT CRAIG-Y-NOS
Penwyllt station was high on a windswept hill. There was no sign of the castle now, nor of any people apart from the station master and the group of nurses who had just got off the train. A cart was waiting to take them to Craig-y-Nos. Johnny buttoned up his coat, pulled down the big woolly hat that Hutch had insisted on lending him to keep warm, and followed the cart down the hill. The road twisted in huge loops, and Johnny managed to keep up by running in a straight line, taking short cuts through the bushes, ducking down so that he wouldn’t be seen. He stayed outside the gates of the castle, watching