Young Sherlock Holmes_ Red Leech - Andrew Lane [77]
Sherlock peered around the edge of the building. The crowd was thinning out now – people who were getting on the train there had already boarded, and people who were getting off there had already dispersed. Only a few passengers who had got off to stretch their legs and grab some food were left. The guard was standing beside the train, looking up and down its length and checking his pocket watch. Up at the front, by the engine, the driver was refilling the water from a tank by the side of the track, raised up on stilts.
‘All we have to do,’ Sherlock said, ‘is wait here until the train goes, then we get the next train back to New York.’
‘It’s not going to be as easy as that,’ Virginia warned.
‘Why not?’
She pointed back towards the outhouses. ‘Look!’
Berle and Ives were standing together. Ives was obviously explaining something, and Berles was looking furious.
‘They’ve realized Matty has gone,’ Sherlock said. ‘They’ll start searching.’
He was right. Berle and Ives split up, heading off in different directions. Berle went back down the length of the train, looking underneath to see if anyone was standing on the other side, while Ives stalked towards them. No, in fact he was stalking towards the station. He went inside, checking the waiting room
‘Quick!’ Sherlock said. ‘This way!’
He led the other two back towards the train.
‘We can’t get back on there!’ Virginia protested.
‘We have to,’ he said. ‘Ives and Berle will check all around the station and the outhouses. If we can get on the train and then off the other side we can make a run for it, then come back when the train has gone.
He scrambled up the steps leading on to the train. Virginia and Matty followed. He could sense their reluctance.
Sherlock quickly moved across to the other side of the carriage and tried the handle of the door.
It was locked.
He twisted harder. No result.
Virginia was at the other door. ‘They’re coming back!’ she called.
Sherlock glanced down the carriage. ‘We can get to the next door,’ he said urgently. ‘Come on.’
Fortunately they had boarded a different carriage from the one they had left. As they pushed through the central aisle, past people who were standing up, checking their luggage or just wandering up and down, they didn’t see any of the men they were trying to avoid.
At the far end, Sherlock checked the door leading off the train and away from the station. This one was unlocked, but as the door swung open and he prepared to jump off, he caught sight of the burly, blond Ives standing on that side of the train. He was looking away from Sherlock, out into the countryside. Sherlock pulled the door closed quickly.
Virginia was checking the station side. ‘The bald man is still there,’ she called. ‘He’s checking both sides of the train.’
Outside, the guard blew his whistle. ‘All aboard!’ he called.
Sherlock’s brain was whirling. There was no way off.
‘We’ll just have to try again at the next station,’ he said decisively. ‘At least we’ve got Matty off them.’
The guard’s whistle blew again, and seconds later the train jerked and began to move, slowly at first but accelerating gradually. Virginia glanced out of the window. ‘The bald man has got back on,’ she said.
Sherlock checked out of his side. ‘So has Ives.’
‘So everyone’s back on,’ Matty pointed out. ‘Great. And I didn’t even get a chance to go to the toilet like I needed to.’
At least we’ve got food,’ Virginia pointed out.
‘Let’s find some seats,’ Sherlock said. ‘Preferably as far away as possible from those men. The other end of the train, if we can.’ He turned to head away, towards the rear of the train, but something in the silence behind him made him turn back.
Berle and another man whom Sherlock didn’t recognize were standing behind Virginia and Matty holding knives to their throats. They must have come along from the other carriage, from the direction of the front of the train, without them noticing.
Sherlock glanced back over his shoulder.
Ives was striding down the aisle of the carriage Sherlock had been planning