Young Sherlock Holmes_ Red Leech - Andrew Lane [96]
‘We’ve got to cross that?’ Matty asked in a hushed voice as the three of them stopped at the edge of the ravine and gazed at the bridge.
Sherlock indicated the depths of the ravine with a wave of his hand. ‘I don’t think we’re in a position to climb down, cross and then climb up again.’
‘I think,’ Virginia said, ‘that he means “We’ve got to cross that tonight?” and I think I agree with him.’
‘We can’t afford to stop and sleep,’ Sherlock pointed out. ‘For a start, we don’t know what’s out here. Cougars, bears . . .’
‘Raccoons,’ Virginia murmured.
‘There could be anything,’ he continued. ‘And we need food. Apart from orange juice and a bread roll, I’ve not had anything since this morning.’
‘Food . . .’ Matty moaned. ‘I’m starving. Do you think there’s anything out here we could, you know, hunt?’
‘More likely to be the other way around,’ Sherlock pointed out. He took a deep breath, and started out over the ravine, stepping from sleeper to sleeper.
‘What happens if a train comes along?’ Matty called.
‘They don’t run at night,’ Virginia said. ‘Too much chance of hitting a buffalo, or a landslide, or something else. They stop in the nearest town and let people off. There’s hotels for people to stay at until the train leaves, next morning.’
‘Oh,’ said Matty. He sounded as if he’d been hoping for a reason not to cross.
Sherlock found, like Matty before him, that stepping from sleeper to sleeper was exhausting. Although he had long legs he still had to stretch for each step. He could see down between the sleepers, but because the last rays of the sun were shining horizontally across the landscape, the ravine was in darkness, and all he could see between his feet was an empty void. If he stared too hard then he started to lose track of where his feet were. Twice he stumbled, and almost lost his footing. Eventually he decided that he just had to look ahead, and trust his instincts to let him find the sleepers. Each one was the same distance apart, and he found that if he didn’t look then he could still work it out.
He glanced back over his shoulder every now and then, to see Virginia and Matty silhouetted by the red disc of the sun following them. They seemed to be managing all right. There was, he told himself, nothing he could do to help them. Each of them was in a universe of their own on that long walk over the ravine.
He heard a sound behind him. He stopped, and glanced over his shoulder. Virginia was sprawled across the tracks. She looked exhausted. She raised her head and gazed at him with weary eyes. ‘Sorry,’ she muttered. ‘I tripped.’ ‘I can’t come back to help,’ Sherlock said desperately. ‘I can’t turn round without risking a fall, and if I bend down to help you up I might fall anyway!’
‘I know,’ she said quietly. ‘I know.’
From behind her, Matty called, ‘Virginia, you’ve got to get up!’
‘Oh, yeah, thanks,’ she hissed, pushing herself up. ‘I would never have thought of that!’
They started off again, one after the other. Time seemed to melt away, each second, each minute blending into the next, so that when Sherlock realized that there was solid ground between the tracks they were already a hundred yards or so past the edge of the ravine.
‘Let’s take a break,’ he said. ‘Just ten minutes.’
Matty groaned. ‘I need to sleep.’
‘My brother says that a man can go without sleep for days on end, if what he’s doing is important and interesting enough.’
‘Walking to the nearest town might be important,’ Matty pointed out, ‘but it’s certainly not interesting.’
Sherlock allowed them what seemed like ten minutes, but might have been anywhere from thirty seconds to an hour judging by the way time was stretching and blurring, before he got them to their feet and started them walking again. They continued to walk in silence along the side of the tracks. Twice, in the distance,