Golden Stories | Page 5

know it, ye understand? To
tell the truth, I've never got over that affair at the Junction here eight
years ago. I expect you remember that."
Merrick nodded. Catesby was alluding to a great railway tragedy which
had taken place outside Lydmouth station some few years back. It had
been a most disastrous affair for a local express, and Catesby had been
acting as guard to the train. He spoke of it under his breath.
"I dream of it occasionally even now," he said. "The engine left the line
and dragged the train over the embankment into the river. If you ask me
how I managed to escape, I can't tell you. I never come into Lydmouth
with the night express now without my head out of the window of the
van right away from the viaduct till she pulls up at the station. And
what's more, I never shall. It isn't fear, mind you, because I've as much
pluck as any man. It's just nerves."

"We get 'em in our profession, too," Merrick smiled. "Did you happen
to be looking out of the window on the night of the murder?"
"Yes, and every other night, too. Haven't I just told you so? Directly we
strike the viaduct I come to my feet by instinct."
"Always look out the same side, I suppose?"
"Yes, on the left. That's the platform side, you understand."
"Then if anybody had left the train there----"
"Anybody left the train! Why we were traveling at fifty miles an hour
when we reached the viaduct. Oh, yes, if anybody had left the train I
should have been bound to see them, of course."
"But you can't see out of both windows at once."
"Nobody could leave the train by the other side. The stone parapet of
the viaduct almost touches the footboard, and there's a drop of ninety
feet below that. Of course I see what you are driving at, Mr. Merrick.
Now look here. I locked Mr. Skidmore in the carriage myself, and I can
prove that nobody got in before we left London. That would have been
too dangerous a game so long as the train was passing any number of
brilliantly lighted stations, and by the time we got into the open we
were going at sixty miles an hour. That speed never slackened till we
were just outside Lydmouth, and I was watching at the moment that our
pace dropped. I had my head out of the window of my van till we
pulled up by the platform. I am prepared to swear to all this if you like.
Lord knows how the thing was done, and I don't suppose anybody else
ever will."
"You are mistaken there," said Merrick drily. "Now, what puzzles you,
of course, is the manner in which the murderer left the train."
"Well, isn't that the whole mystery?"
"Not to me. That's the part I really do know. Not that I can take any

great credit to myself, because luck helped me. It was, perhaps, the
most amazing piece of luck I have ever had. It was my duty, of course,
to take no chances, and I didn't. But we'll come to that presently. Let it
suffice for the moment that I know how the murderer left the train.
What puzzles me is to know how he got on it. We can dismiss every
other passenger in the train, and we need not look for an accomplice.
There were accomplices, of course, but they were not on the express.
Why didn't Mr. Skidmore travel in one of the corridor coaches?"
"He was too nervous. He always had a first-class carriage to himself.
We knew he was coming, and that was why we attached an ordinary
first-class coach to the train. We shouldn't do it for anybody, but Lord
Rendelmore, the chairman of Mr. Skidmore's bank, is also one of our
directors. The coach came in handy the other night because we had an
order from a London undertaker to bring a corpse as far as here--to
Lydmouth."
"Really! You would have to have a separate carriage for that."
"Naturally, Mr. Merrick. It was sort of killing two birds with one
stone."
"I see. When did you hear about the undertaking job?"
"The same morning we heard from the bank that Mr. Skidmore was
going to Lydmouth. We reserved a coach at once, and had it attached to
the Express. The other carriages were filled with ordinary passengers."
"Why didn't I hear of this before?" Merrick asked.
"I don't know. It doesn't seem to me to be of much importance. You
might just as well ask me questions as to the passengers' baggage."
"Everything is of importance," Merrick said sententiously. "In our
profession, there are no such things as trifles.