Read Online Death in the Tunnel by Miles Burton - Free Book Online Page B

both knew that something was up.
    â€œWell, sir, you can’t pull up a heavy train like you can a motor-car, and I thought we were for it. I couldn’t judge how far off the light might be, and I was afraid we should be on top of it before we could stop. But it was farther away than I thought, and a very bright light it must have been for me to catch sight of it all that distance away. And as we got closer, I could see that it was swinging slowly from side to side, a foot or so above rail level, just as if somebody was holding it at arm’s length and swinging it. But it was a brighter light than any railway lantern I’ve ever known. Or maybe it seemed bright to me because I was afraid of running into it before I could stop.”
    â€œDid you form any idea of what the light could mean?” Arnold asked.
    â€œI hadn’t much time to form ideas, sir. My job was to get the train stopped. Something was amiss ahead, and there was the light to warn me. Well, sir, I managed to get the train in hand, and saw that I could pull up before I reached the light. And then, all at once, it changed to green, which means all clear, sir.”
    â€œHow far from the light were you when this happened?”
    â€œIt’s hard to say, sir. Maybe a hundred yards. Rather more, perhaps, certainly not less. So I took off the brakes, and let the steam into the cylinders again.”
    â€œWhereabout in the tunnel were you by this time?”
    â€œJust about the middle, sir. I whistled to show that I’d seen the green light. And then I saw that the chap who was swinging it must have been standing between the up and the down lines.”
    â€œDid you see the man himself?”
    â€œNo, sir, it was too dark for that. But the light was swinging between the two sets of rails, so the man must have been standing there. And he turned off his lantern altogether just before I reached him.”
    â€œYou mean that the green light disappeared?”
    â€œThat’s right, sir. I tried to see the chap as I passed him, but my own steam was coming down round about the cab by then, and I couldn’t see anything. And though my mate hollered, the chap didn’t answer, or if he did we didn’t hear him. And that’s the truth, sir. It’s no good telling me that there was nobody in the tunnel, for I know there was. Else how could those lights have been there?”
    Arnold was evidently impressed by the driver’s circumstantial description. “All right, Prentice, I believe you,” he said. “You might send Haynes in here, will you? I’d like to hear what he’s got to say about it.”
    The fireman confirmed his companion’s story in every detail. Arnold did his best to find some discrepancy in the two accounts, but failed completely. Haynes was as ready to swear to the presence of the lights as Prentice had been. “And it seemed to me, sir, that the light didn’t come from one of they ordinary lanterns,” he added.
    â€œWhat made you think that?” Arnold asked.
    â€œWell, you see, sir, the lights was too bright, for one thing. We must have been half a mile or more away from the red light when Bob shut off steam. When he first saw it, that was, you understand. And, though there wasn’t as much steam in the tunnel as usual, it was still a bit hazy. You wouldn’t see an ordinary lantern as far as that. And, for another thing, the light didn’t seem to shine in one direction, like a lantern does. It showed all round, like.”
    â€œAnd yet you couldn’t see the man who was holding it?”
    â€œNo, sir, and that seemed queer to me at the time. For, if the light showed all round, it ought to have shone on him so that we could see him. At least, that’s what I make out, sir.”
    â€œAnd you make out quite right, it seems to me. All right, Haynes, that’ll do. I’m much obliged to you.”
    The fireman departed, and Arnold turned