by Peter Bunzl
“Miss Buckle,” Robert said. “She’s taken Dane.”
“Kidnapped him!” Caddy added, still in shock.
“Sprang from the window like a lone wolf,” Malkin yipped.
“The outfit she had on was the same one she was wearing last night,” Lily said.
“What do you mean, last night?” the inspector asked.
“I saw her at midnight standing outside the hotel,” Lily said. “She was across the street, watching the Milksops’ room.” Lily pointed at the corner where Miss Buckle had stood. “Then someone inside the room flashed a light on and off three times, as if they were signalling something to her.”
“A secret signal?” The inspector scratched his head. “And then this villainous mech returned to the scene of the crime, to commit more atrocities. How interesting.” He turned to his assistant who was searching in his pockets to retrieve a notebook. “Write all this down, Drumpf, and take a statement from each of these kids. I’ll call the station from the hotel telephone and tell ’em to revise the police bulletin we put out on Miss Buckle with these new details.”
Lily didn’t hold out much hope for that. Since they’d first arrived last night, the police had seemed at least three steps behind everyone else.
As the inspector walked back up the hotel steps, Professor Milksop tumbled out of the entrance blocking his way. She was still carrying the wooden case with the Ouroboros snake stamped on the side, and in her other hand she clasped what looked like a note. It must’ve been the message she’d received at breakfast.
“Dane’s gone!” Professor Milksop cried. “I’ve been up to the room and he’s been taken!” Then she saw Robert, Lily, Caddy and Malkin, and pointed them out to Inspector Tedesko. “Arrest those Hartman kids, Inspector! They’re responsible for this new atrocity too, I’d wager!”
“More likely you are,” Lily said. She stared around Lieutenant Drumpf’s shoulder at Professor Milksop standing three steps above her. “Those flashing lights I told you about, Inspector… They must’ve been to tell Miss Buckle to come back and break in this morning and take Dane.”
“Lies!” Matilda Milksop cried. “This girl’s a liar! See this note, Inspector.” She waved the paper at him. “I just got it. Only a kid would be stupid enough to write a threatening note like this, all cut outta newspaper letters!”
The inspector took the note from her. His eyes widened in alarm as he read what was written on it. “I don’t think any of this is a child’s doing, Ma’am,” he said at last. “It seems pretty serious.”
Professor Milksop glared daggers at Lily and she snatched the note back from the inspector’s grip. “She’s involved somehow. I know it. I bet she’s informed on me to whoever’s running this racket. Probably put them up to it!” Suddenly she clutched the message to her temple. Her legs buckled beneath her and she collapsed onto the red stair carpet, fainting dead away.
Lily couldn’t decide if this pathetic scene was for real or whether Professor Milksop was faking it. The inspector looked sceptical too. Nevertheless, he waved at his assistant and then at the mechanical porter who’d finally arrived.
“Fetch some smelling salts,” he ordered, and they both hurried off into the hotel. Meanwhile, he kneeled beside Professor Milksop, put her in the recovery position and checked her pulse.
Several minutes passed.
“Clank it all!” the inspector said angrily. “What’s taking them so long? You stay with her and make sure she’s all right,” he told Robert, Lily and Caddy, and then he got up and strode back into the lobby, searching for Lieutenant Drumpf and the hotel porter.
Robert and Caddy crouched next to Professor Milksop. Lily put her basket on the floor and joined them.
Now that the inspector had gone, Malkin nudged Professor Milksop with his nose, but she didn’t move. “Well,” he said, “what do you know! I think she’s really fainted. Probably the stress of telling all those big fat porkies to the police.”
“Maybe she panicked that the truth is finally going to come out,” Robert said.
Lily noticed something else. The note Professor Milksop had been clasping had dropped to the floor when the inspector had moved her.
She picked it up, and examined it. Just like the professor had said, it was made up of letters cut from random newspaper headlines, which made it impossible to tell who’d written it. Some of the cut-out letters were yellowing around the edges. She glanced around to see that the inspector had still not returned and then, quickly, read the note aloud to everyone.
“What’s ransom?” Caddy asked, confused.
“It’s where kidnappers exchange a person they’ve taken for something they really want,” Lily explained. “They’re trying to use Dane as a bargaining chip to get the engine.”
Robert read out the rest of the message: “At midday today be waiting in the hotel lobby. We will telephone with further instructions for the ransom swap. Do as we say or your nephew Dane will not be returned alive.”
Caddy shivered when he’d finished. “I thought mechanicals didn’t have free will, so why is Miss Buckle threatening to hurt Dane to try and get Matilda Milksop’s machine?” she asked. “Surely it’s of no use to her? And what will happen to Dane in all of this?”
“I don’t know,” Lily admitted. “Maybe she’s working for someone else, who instructed her to do it? Either way, Dane’s obviously in even more trouble than we knew…” Her brow knitted with this new worrisome concern. “I suppose this means there could be someone else involved in this kidnap and ransom that we’re not even aware of yet.”
She was right, Robert realized, there could be. But if Miss Buckle wasn’t working alone, and she wasn’t working with Matilda Milksop as they’d first thought, then who else could have ordered Dane’s kidnapping? And what would that mean for Caddy’s prediction about him waking the dead? None of them could answer any of these questions, not without more information about this terrifying new development.
Just then, they heard a noise behind them. Inspector Tedesko was returning. Robert stuffed the note back into Matilda Milksop’s fist.
“Professor Milksop!” Inspector Tedesko called as he kneeled down beside her and waved the smelling salts under her nose.
Finally Professor Milksop woke and the inspector helped her up, the wooden case still handcuffed to her wrist. Lily, Robert and Caddy followed them inside, keeping their distance. As they entered the lobby, a bell cut through the chaos. It was the telephone on the reception desk.
The receptionist picked it up. “Hello?”
She put her hand over the receiver and called to the inspector and Professor Milksop, who was leaning woozily against him, her free hand clutching her temple.
“It’s for you, Professor. I’m not clear who it is, but they say they’ve got another message for you.”
Lily felt a jolt of shock run through her. It had to be the kidnappers on the line!
Matilda Milksop went white as a sheet and glanced at the clock above the desk.
Its hands pointed exactly at twelve o’clock, just like the kidnappers had said.
“Should I take it?” she asked the inspector.
“I think you should,” the inspector replied. “Do you feel well enough to?”
Matilda Milksop nodded.
Lily and the others watched as the inspector helped her over to the bank of telephones and signalled to the receptionist to transfer the kidnapper’s call.
The inspector installed himself in the second booth next to Matilda, so that he would be able to listen in.
Lily, Robert and Caddy scanned the lobby. Lily knew there was no question they needed to hear this converstaion as well.
“Come on,” she said, pulling the others behind the Christmas tree right next to the phone box, hoping to hear what was being said.
In his booth, Inspector Tedesko held up two fingers behind the glass to indicate to the receptionist to patch the call through to both lines. Then he picked up the phone and put his hand over the
receiver, before giving the signal to Matilda to answer the call…
Lily could see Professor Milksop through the glass door of the telephone booth, talking to whoever was on the other end of the line and writing down various instructions on the pad beside the phone. But frustratingly, from where they were hiding behind the Christmas tree, she couldn’t hear what the professor was saying. The door to the phone booth was closed and the glass in it was thick enough to block out all sound. Lily couldn’t even try to read Professor Milksop’s lips, for the woman had bent away from them to talk into the receiver.
As she watched, Matilda hung up the receiver. Then she ripped the top sheet of paper from the pad and put it in her pocket before walking out of the booth.
Now the call was over, Inspector Tedesko pulled Matilda into a quiet corner to strategize. Lily signalled to Robert and Caddy to sneak in closer and eavesdrop on them. Unfortunately, when she and the others stepped out from behind the Christmas tree, they found that the inspector’s assistant had arrived and was waiting for him nearby. If they tried to get any closer, Lily knew they would be clocked by the man.
After a while, Inspector Tedesko and Matilda Milksop finished their conversation. The inspector called over Lieutenant Drumpf and together they synchronized their watches.
As she leaned in, Lily heard the inspector say the words three-thirty, though she didn’t know what this was in relation to, and then the pair of them took the elevator with the professor up to the third floor.
“Clank it!” Robert said. “We missed the call completely. We don’t know what they’re planning or where the ransom swap is.”
“Wait!” Caddy cried. “I’ve had an idea!”
She grabbed the others and pulled them across the marble floor and into the first booth, where Matilda Milksop had taken the call from the kidnappers.
When they were all squeezed in tight, she picked up the telephone pad and pencil from where they lay on a wooden shelf.
“What are you doing?” Robert asked.
“I saw this in the spy book you gave me,” she explained. “All you do is…” She rubbed the pencil over the top sheet of the pad and ghostly writing began to appear as she revealed the indentation of Professor Milksop’s notes from the page above.
When Caddy had finished, the entire message was revealed in white inverted words that stood out from the grey of the pencil shading. She read it aloud.
“That must be where and when the ransom exchange is going to take place,” Lily said. “That time we overheard – three-thirty – must be when they’re heading over there.”
She couldn’t believe that Professor Milksop had agreed to give up her invention so easily. “I don’t understand it,” she told the others. “Yesterday, Dane told us the professor was trying to buy the Ouroboros Diamond herself so she could fix her engine, and now she’s going to exchange that Ouroboros Engine for her nephew. It doesn’t even seem as if she particularly likes Dane, so why is she going through with this ransom swap? She’ll lose her valuable machine.”
“Perhaps she’s just doing it for the police,” Robert said. “To keep up appearances. She can’t let anyone know what her machine really does or she would be arrested. You know, the Grand Central Depot is only one block over from here,” he went on. “We have to be there for the ransom swap.”
“How are we going to manage that?” Caddy asked. “Ma and John won’t let us out alone.”
“We’ll take them with us,” Lily said. “I’ll tell them we heard that the inside of the station is an amazing tourist attraction and that we’re dying to see it, especially the steam trains. Papa is mad for those. He’s bound to agree. He wanted to buy train tickets for our onward trip next week anyway.”
“Great idea!” Robert said. “When we get there, we can ditch John and Ma in the main lobby and make our way to where the exchange is going down.”
“And then,” said Lily, “we can find out who the kidnappers really are and help the police rescue Dane!” As she said that, she saw something white sprint across the carpet towards them.
It was Spook, Dane’s pet mouse.
The boy had left it behind and it had sneaked through the hotel and found them.
Robert picked Spook up, cupping him in his hand. The mouse felt cold and strange. Its heart wasn’t beating, like Robert’s did, nor did it clank, like a mechanical’s would, or tick-tock somewhere in between, like the hybrid noises Lily’s heart made. It was as if Spook radiated life, but at the same time was not alive. Robert put the mouse in his coat pocket, where he thought it would be comfortable. He vowed to return Spook to Dane when they found him.
Just then he spotted Papa and Selena coming through the hotel entrance, returned from their second visit to the embassy to collect Selena’s stamped permit. Luckily, they had quite missed all the morning’s excitement and Lily thought it best not to tell them what had happened in case they thought she, Robert and Caddy had broken their earlier promise about not getting involved.
Over a late lunch of minute steak with French fried potatoes, Lily reminded Papa and Selena of their plan to go and buy their tickets for the onward trip to Boston that afternoon.
“I don’t know,” Papa said, staring out the dining-room window at the large and constant flakes falling heavily in the street. “It looks rather inclement now. Perhaps we should leave it until tomorrow?”
“But the station might be closed tomorrow,” Lily said desperately. “For New Year’s Eve.”
“Please, Professor Hartman!” Caddy pleaded. “I haven’t had a chance to see any of the city yet. A little snow shouldn’t stop us, not if we’re wrapped up warm.”
“It would be a good chance to admire the Grand Central Depot while we’re not in a rush,” Robert added, persuasively. “We could have a look at the trains.”
“Hmm,” Papa replied. “What do you think?” he asked Selena.
“It is only one block away,” Selena said. “And the children do deserve an outing. A walk in the snow might be nice.”
“I suppose,” Papa agreed. “I am very interested to see what kind of stock they’re running on each of the lines, especially what kind of foul-weather gear the locomotives are fitted with. What time would you like to leave for the station?” he asked them.
“How about at three o’clock?” Lily suggested.
And so it was agreed.
Back in the suite, Lily and her friends put on their hats, gloves and coats and assembled the things they thought might be useful for spying on a ransom swap:
Caddy packed her book on spy craft in her day bag.
Lily wound the tiger-striped scarf around her neck and secreted her lock picks, magnifying glass and pocket watch about her blouson – she was sure that one item or another would come in handy.
Robert put on his cap and packed the compass John had given him in his da’s coat, next to Spook. Finally he hung Selena’s binoculars around his neck. They sat across his chest, just below the Moonlocket which was nestled beneath his shirt.
Malkin didn’t bring anything because he didn’t have any pockets, not even in the new winter jacket Mrs Rust had knitted him, and now that he had noticed as much he complained about it, loudly, as Lily stuffed him away into the basket.
That was it then – they were ready to sneak off from Papa and Selena and follow the Milksops and the police. Ready to trail Miss Buckle, or the kidnapper, or whoever ended up with the machine, and finally find out what they were up to and stop them. So, with Papa and Selena, and barely half an hour before Lily knew that Matilda Milksop and the police would be due to leave themselves, they set out for Grand Central Depot.
Robert shivered and huffed out a cloud of warm air. He pushed his cap back on his head and stared up at the humongous snow-capped shape of New York’s Grand Central Depot. He could feel Spook scrabbling about in the pocket of his da’s jacket beside his compass. The little mouse poked its head out and Robert put a hand over it to keep him still.
Despite all his current
anxieties, Robert couldn’t help marvelling at the station. He’d never seen the like. The building was far bigger than any of the rail or airship terminals he’d visited before, and he’d seen quite a few, in London, Manchester, Liverpool and Paris, not to mention the Staten Island Airstation, where they had first docked in New York.
This building dwarfed them all. From the roof sprouted six large towers topped with round domes coated in snow. Each bore a Stars-and-Stripes flag that flapped back and forth between the blizzard of snowflakes. On each of the three towers above the south entrance the name of a different railroad was printed:
Robert was finding it all too confusing, with these three different lines and entrances. “Which one is the ransom swap on again?” he whispered to Lily.
Lily pulled the phone-box note from her coat pocket and consulted it. “New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. Platform nine,” she whispered back.
“That’s the entrance beneath the tower on the left,” Caddy said.
“According to your Appleton’s Guide,” Selena said, interrupting their whisperings to read from the book that she was carrying, “this entire terminal was designed by John B. Snook and first opened in 1871. Each railroad has its own separate lines, waiting room, ticket office and depot.”
“Interesting,” said Papa. “So where do we need to go to buy our tickets?”
Selena checked the guidebook again. “We want the New York and Harlem Railroad. It’s beneath the biggest tower, the one right in the centre with the clock on.” She pointed at it, and she and Papa set off walking in that direction across the slushy street filled with steam-wagons.
Lily checked her pocket watch. “Three-twenty,” she whispered. “The ransom swap is at four, and Professor Milksop and the police will be on their way to the station right now.”
“If they’re not here already,” Malkin growled from within Lily’s basket.
Robert, Caddy and Lily crossed the street in John and Selena’s wake and followed them up to the entranceway in the central tower that led to the New York and Harlem Railroad.