Part of the wall was opening before her! Before her very eyes, a great ma.s.s of it slid back in the centre of the wall - back and back - until a strange-shaped opening, about the size of the train itself, showed in the thick wall. George gasped. Whatever could be happening?
A man came through the opening. George felt sure she had seen him before somewhere. He came up to the engine of the train and swung himself into the cab.
There were all sorts of sounds then from the cab. What was the man doing? Starting the fire to run the train? George did not dare to try and see. She was trembling now, and Timmy pressed himself against her to comfort her.
Then came another set of noises - steam noises. The man must be going to start the engine moving. Smoke came from the funnel. More noises, and some clanks and clangs.
It suddenly occurred to George that the man might be going to take the train through that little opening in the bricked-up wall. Then-supposing he shut the wall up again - George would be a prisoner! She would be in the truck, hidden behind that wall, and the wall would be closed so that she couldn"t escape.
"I must get out before it"s too late," thought George, in a panic. "I only hope the man doesn"t see me!"
But just as she was about to try and get out, the engine gave a loud "choo-choo", and began to move backwards! It ran down the lines a little way, then forward again, and this time its wheels were on the set of lines that led to the second tunnel, where the small opening now showed so clearly in the wall.
George didn"t dare to get out of the moving train. So there she crouched as the engine steamed quickly to the hole in the wall that stretched right across the other tunnel. That hole just fitted it! It must have been made for it, thought George, as the train moved through it.
The train went right through and came out in another tunnel. Here there was a bright light, too. George peered out through the crack. There was more than a tunnel here! What looked like vast caves stretched away on each side of the tunnel, and men lounged about in them. Who on earth were they, and what were they doing with that old train?
There was a curious noise at the back of the train. The hole in the stout brick wall closed up once more! Now there was no way in or out. "It"s like the Open-Sesame trick in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," thought George. "And, like Ali Baba, I"m in the cave -and don"t know the way to get myself out! Thank goodness Timmy is with me!"
The train was now at a standstill. Behind it was the thick wall - and then George saw that in front of it was a thick wall, too! This tunnel must be bricked up in two places - and in between was this extraordinary cavern, or whatever it was. George puzzled her head over the strange place, but couldn"t make head or tail ofit.
"Well! Whatever would the others say if they knew you and I were actually in the spook-train itself, tucked away in its hiding-place where n.o.body in the world can find it?" whispered George to Timmy. "What are we to do, Timmy?"
Timmy wagged his tail cautiously. He didn"t understand all this. He wanted to lie low for a bit and see how things turned out.
"We"ll wait till the men have gone away, Timmy," whispered George. "That is, if they ever do! Then we"ll get out and see if we can manage that Open-Sesame entrance and get away. We"d better tell Mr Luffy about all this. There"s something very strange and very mysterious here - and we"ve fallen headlong into it!"
16
In the tunnel again
Jock was really enjoying himself at the camp. He had a picnic lunch with the others, and ate as much as they did, looking very happy. Mr Luffy joined them, and Jock beamed at him, feeling that he was a real friend.
"Where"s George?" asked Mr Luffy.
"Gone off by herself," said Julian.
"Have you quarrelled, by any chance?" said Mr Luffy.
"A bit," said Julian. "We have to let George get over it by herself, Mr Luffy. She"s like that."
"Where"s she gone?" said Mr Luffy, helping himself to a tomato. "Why isn"t she back to dinner?"
"She"s taken hers with her," said Anne. "I feel a bit worried about her, somehow. I hope she"s all right."
Mr Luffy looked alarmed. "I feel a bit worried myself," he said. "Still, she"s got Timmy with her."
"We"re going off on a bit of exploring," said Julian, when they had all finished eating. "What are you going to do, Mr Luffy?"
"I think I"ll come with you," said Mr Luffy, unexpectedly. The children"s hearts sank. They couldn"t possibly go exploring for spook-trains in the tunnel if Mr Luffy was with them.
"Well - I don"t think it will be very interesting for you, sir," said Julian, rather feebly. However, Mr Luffy took the hint and"realised he wasn"t wanted that afternoon.
"Right," he said. "In that case I"ll stay here and mess about."
The children sighed with relief. Anne cleared up, with Jock helping her, and then they called good-bye to Mr Luffy and set off, taking their tea with them.
Jock was full of excitement. He was so pleased to be with the others, and he kept thinking of sleeping in the camp that night - what am it would be! Good old Mr Luffy, taking his side like that. He bounded after the others joyfully as they went off to the old railway yard.
Wooden-Leg Sam was pottering about there as usual. They waved to him, but he didn"t wave back. Instead he shook his fist at them and tried to bawl in his husky voice: "You clear out! Trespa.s.sing, that"s what you are. Don"t you come down here or I"ll chase you!"
"Well, we won"t go down then," said d.i.c.k, with a grin. "Poor old man - thinking of chasing us with that wooden leg of his. We won"t give him the chance. We"ll just walk along here, climb down the lines and walk up them to the tunnel."
Which is what they did, much to the rage of poor Sam. He yelled till his voice gave out, but they took no notice, and walked quickly up the lines. The mouth of the tunnel looked very round and black as they came near.
"Now we"ll jolly well walk right through this tunnel and see where that spook-train is that came out of it the other night," said Julian. "It didn"t come out the other end, so it must be somewhere in the middle of the tunnel."
"If it"s a real spook-train, it might completely disappear," said Anne, not liking the look of the dark tunnel at all. The others laughed.
"It won"t have disappeared," said d.i.c.k. "We shall come across it somewhere, and we"ll examine it thoroughly and try and find out exactly what it is, and why it comes and goes in such a mysterious manner."
They walked into the black tunnel, and switched on their torches, which made little gleaming paths in front of them. They walked up the middle of one pair of lines, Julian in front keeping a sharp look-out for anything in the shape of a train!
The lines ran on and on. The children"s voices sounded weird and echoing in the long tunnel. Anne kept close to d.i.c.k, and half wished she hadn"t come. Then she remembered that George had called her a coward, and she put up her head, determined not to show that she was scared.
Jock talked almost without stopping. Tve never done anything like this in my life. I call this a proper adventure, hunting for spook-trains in a dark tunnel. It makes me feel nice and shivery all over. I do hope we find the train. It simply must be here somewhere!"
They walked on and on and on. But there was no sign of any train. They came to where the tunnel forked into the second one, that used to run to Roker"s Vale. Julian flashed his torch on the enormous brick wall that stretched across the second tunnel.
"Yes, it"s well and truly bricked up," he said. "So that only leaves this tunnel to explore. Come on."
They went on again, little knowing that George and Timmy were behind that brick wall, hidden in a truck of the spook-train itself! They walked on and on down the lines, and found nothing interesting at all.
They saw a little round circle of bright light some way in front of them. "See that?" said Julian. "That must be the end of this tunnel - the opening that goes into Kilty"s Yard. Well, if the train isn"t between here and Kilty"s Yard, it"s gone!"
In silence they walked down the rest of the tunnel, and came out into the open air. Workshops were built all over Kilty"s Yard. The entrance to the tunnel was weed-grown and neglected. Weeds grew even across the lines there.
"Well, no train has been out of this tunnel here for years," said Julian, looking at the thick weeds. "The wheels would have chopped the weeds to bits."
"It"s extraordinary," said d.i.c.k, puzzled. "We"ve been right through the tunnel and there"s no train there at all, yet we know it goes in and out of it. What"s happened to it?"
"It is a spook-train," said Jock, his face red with excitement. "Must be. It only exists at night, and then comes out on its lines, like it used to do years ago."
"I don"t like thinking that," said Anne, troubled. "It"s a horrid thought."
"What are we going to do now?" Julian asked. "We seem to have come to a blank. No train, nothing to see, empty tunnel. What a dull end to an adventure."
"Let"s walk back all the way again," said Jock - he wanted to squeeze as much out of this adventure as he could. "I know we shan"t see the train this time any more than we did the last time, but you never know!"
"I"m not coming through that tunnel again," said Anne. "I want to be out in the sun. I"ll walk over the top of the tunnel, along the path there that Julian took the other night and you three can walk back, and meet me at the other end."
"Right," said Julian and the three boys disappeared into the dark tunnel. Anne ran up the path that led alongside the top of it. How good it was to be in the open air again! That horrid tunnel! She ran along cheerfully, glad to be out in the sun.
She got to the other end of the tunnel quite quickly, and sat down on the path above the yard to wait for the others. She looked for Wooden-Leg Sam. He was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he was in his little hut.
She hadn"t been there for more than two minutes when something surprising happened. A car came b.u.mping slowly down the rough track to the yard! Anne sat up and watched. A man got out - and Anne"s eyes almost fell out of her head. Why, it was - surely it was Mr Andrews, Jock"s stepfather!
He went over to Sam"s hut and threw open the door. Anne could hear the sound of voices. Then she heard another noise - the sound of a heavy lorry coming. She saw it come cautiously down the steep, rough track. It ran into an old tumbledown shed and stayed there. Then three men came out and Anne stared at them. Where had she seen them before?
"Of course! They"re the farm labourers at Jock"s farm!" she thought. "But what are they doing here? How very strange!"
Mr Andrews joined the men and, to Anne"s dismay, they began to walk up the lines to the tunnel! Her heart almost stopped. Goodness, Julian, d.i.c.k and Jock were still in that tunnel, walking through it. They would b.u.mp right into Mr Andrews and his men - and then what would happen? Mr Andrews had warned them against going there, and had ordered Jock not to go.
Anne stared at the four men walking into the far-off mouth of the tunnel. What could she do? How could she warn the boys? She couldn"t! She would just have to stay there and wait for them to come out - probably chased by a furious Mr Andrews and the other men. Oh dear, dear - if they were caught they would probably all get an awful telling off! What could she do?
"I can only wait," thought poor Anne. "There"s nothing else to do. Oh, do come, Julian, d.i.c.k and Jock. I daren"t do anything but wait for you."
She waited and waited. It was now long past tea-time. Julian had the tea, so there was nothing for Anne to eat. n.o.body came out of the tunnel. Not a sound was heard. Anne at last decided to go down and ask Wooden-Leg Sam a few questions. So, rather afraid, the girl set off down to the yard.
Sam was in his hut, drinking cocoa, and looking very sour. Something had evidently gone wrong. When he saw Anne"s shadow across the doorway he got up at once, shaking his fist.
"What, you children again! You went into that tunnel this afternoon, and so I went up and telephoned Mr Andrews to come and catch you all, poking your noses in all the time? How did you get out of that tunnel? Are the others with you? Didn"t Mr Andrews catch you, eh?"
Anne listened to all this in horror. So old Sam had actually managed to telephone Mr Andrews, and tell tales on them - so that Jock"s stepfather and his men had come to catch them. This was worse than ever.
"You come in here," said Sam suddenly, and he darted his big arm at her. "Come on. I don"t know where the others are, but I"ll get one of you!"
Anne gave a scream and ran away at top speed. Wooden-Leg Sam went after her for a few yards and then gave it up. He bent down and picked up a handful of cinders. A shower of them fell all round Anne, and made her run faster than ever.
She tore up the path to the heather, and was soon on the moors again, panting and sobbing. "Oh, Julian! Oh, d.i.c.k! What"s happened to you? Oh, where"s George? If only she would come home, she"d be brave enough to look for them, but I"m not. I must tell Mr Luffy. He"ll know what to do!" She ran on and on, her feet catching continually in the tufts of thick heather. She kept falling over and scrambling up again. She now had only one idea in her mind - to find Mr Luffy and tell him every single thing! Yes, she would tell him about the spook-trains and all. There was something strange and important about the whole thing now, and she wanted a grown-up"s help.
She staggered on and on. "Mr Luffy! Oh, Mr Luffy, where are you? MR LUFFY!"
But no Mr Luffy answered her. She came round the gorse bushes she thought were the ones sheltering the camp - but, alas, the camp was not there. Anne had lost her way!
"I"m lost," said Anne, the tears running down her cheeks. "But I mustn"t get scared. I must try to find the right path now. Oh, dear, I"m quite lost! Mr LUFFY!"
Poor Anne. She stumbled on blindly, hoping to come to the camp, calling every now and again. "Mr Luffy. Can you hear me? MR LUFFFFFFFY!"
17
An amazing find
In the meantime, what had happened to the three boys walking back through the tunnel? They had gone slowly along examining the lines to see if a train could have possibly run along them recently. Few weeds grew in the dark airless tunnel, so they could not tell by those.
But, when they came about half-way, Julian noticed an interesting thing. "Look," he said, flashing his torch on to the lines before and behind them. "See that? The lines are black and rusty behind us now, but here this pair of lines is quite bright - as if they had been used a lot."
He was right. Behind them stretched black and rusty lines, sometimes buckled in places - but in front of them, stretching to the mouth of the tunnel leading to Olly"s Yard, the lines were bright, as if train-wheels had run along them.
"That"s funny," said d.i.c.k. "Looks as if the spook-train ran only from here to Olly"s Yard and back. But why? And where in the world is it now? It"s vanished into thin air!"
Julian was as puzzled as d.i.c.k. Where could a train be if it was not in the tunnel? It had obviously run to the middle of the tunnel, and then stopped - but where had it gone now?
"Let"s go to the mouth of the tunnel and see if the lines are bright all the way," said Julian at last. "We can"t discover much here - unless the train suddenly materialises in front of us!"
They went on down the tunnel, their torches flashing on the lines in front of them. They talked earnestly as they went. They didn"t see four men waiting for them, four men who crouched in a little niche at the side of the tunnel, waiting there in the dark.
"Well," said Julian, "I think -" and then he stopped, because four dark figures suddenly pounced on the three boys and held them fast. Julian gave a shout and struggled, but the man who had hold of him was far too strong to escape from. Their torches were flung to the ground. Julian"s broke, and the other two torches lay there, their beams shining on the feet of the struggling company.
It didn"t take more than twenty seconds to make each boy a captive, his arms behind his back. Julian tried to kick, but his captor twisted his arm so fiercely that he groaned in pain and stopped his kicking.
"Look here! What"s all this about?" demanded d.i.c.k. "Who are you, and what do you think you"re doing? We"re only three boys exploring an old tunnel. What"s the harm in that?"
"Take them all away," said a voice that everyone recognised at once.
"Mr Andrews! Is it you?" cried Julian. "Set us free. You know us - the boys at the camp. And Jock"s here too. What do you think you"re doing?"
Mr Andrews didn"t answer, but he gave poor Jock a box on the right ear that almost sent him to the ground.
Their captors turned them about, and led them roughly up the tunnel, towards the middle. n.o.body had a torch so it was all done in the darkness and the three boys stumbled badly, though the men seemed sure-footed enough.
They came to a halt after a time. Mr Andrews left them and Julian heard him go off somewhere to the left. Then there came a curious noise - a bang, a clank, and then a sliding, grating sound. What could be happening? Julian strained his eyes in the darkness, but he could see nothing at all.
He didn"t know that Mr Andrews was opening the bricked-up wall through which the train had gone. He didn"t know that he and the others were being pushed out of the first tunnel into the other one, through the curious hole in the wall. The three boys were shoved along in the darkness, not daring to protest.