The Railway Detective irc-1

by Edward Marston

  ‘I am in charge here,’ asserted Tallis, rising officiously to his feet as he turned to Colbeck. ‘And not the Inspector.’

  ‘But you do not have the same personal interest as your colleague. He is a gentleman who will always put the safety of a lady first. Am I right, Inspector Colbeck?’

  ‘What have you done with Miss Andrews?’ asked Colbeck.

  ‘She is right here. Quite unharmed – as yet.’

  Madeleine was suddenly pulled into view. Colbeck could see that her wrists were bound together and that she was shaking with fear. Gilzean put a pistol to her temple.

  ‘If anyone tries to stop us,’ he warned, ‘Miss Andrews dies.’

  ‘He would never dare to kill a woman,’ said Tallis.

  ‘Call your men off, Inspector Colbeck.’

  ‘I give the orders here.’

  ‘This is no time to argue, Superintendent,’ said Colbeck, his gaze fixed on Madeleine. ‘We must obey him or he’ll carry out his threat. I’ll not trade Miss Andrews’s life for anything.’ Before Tallis could stop him, he gave a command. ‘Stand back, everyone! Let them go!’

  ‘I have not made a decision yet,’ protested Tallis.

  ‘Then make it, sir. Do as he says or tell him to blow out her brains. But bear this in mind, Superintendent,’ he went on, looking at him with burning conviction, ‘if Miss Andrews is killed, or harmed in any way, I will hold you responsible.’

  Tallis wrestled with his conscience. Keen to arrest the two men who had sparked the dramatic series of crimes, he did not want a life to be lost in the process, especially that of a defenceless young woman. He was also swayed by Colbeck’s intervention. In the end, trying to attest his authority, he barked his own order.

  ‘Stay where you are!’ he shouted. ‘Lower your weapons and do not try to stop them!’ He sat down heavily in his seat. ‘I never thought to see the day when I gave in to the threats of a criminal!’

  ‘They will not get far,’ Colbeck assured him. ‘But next time, I suggest, we should not arrive with such a fanfare. All that we have done is to endanger their hostage.’

  Tallis brooded in silence and stared at the house. They were not kept waiting long. The coachman was the first to emerge, running to the stables at the side of the house with a servant in attendance. Against such an emergency, the carriage was already loaded with baggage but the horses had to be harnessed. While that was happening the front door of the house remained shut. When the carriage finally came round the angle of the building, Colbeck dismounted, tethered his horse to a bush and walked briskly up the drive.

  ‘Wherever is he going?’ demanded Tallis. ‘Those men are armed.’

  ‘Inspector Colbeck has taken that into account, sir,’ said Leeming.

  ‘I gave him no permission to move.’

  ‘He obviously feels that he does not need it.’

  Colbeck strode on until he was no more than twenty yards from the house. When three figures came out, he had a clear view of them. Dressed in a satin cloak with a hood, Madeleine Andrews was being forced along between Gilzean and Sholto. The men stopped when they saw Colbeck standing there, weighing him up with a mixture of cold scorn and grudging admiration.

  ‘Are you bearing up, Miss Andrews?’ asked Colbeck.

  ‘Yes, Inspector,’ she replied, summoning up a brave smile. ‘They have not hurt me.’

  ‘Nor will we if the Inspector has the sense to do as I tell him,’ said Gilzean, letting Sholto get into the carriage before pushing Madeleine after him. ‘Goodbye, Inspector. I am sorry that our acquaintance has to be so fleeting.’

  ‘Well meet again soon, Sir Humphrey,’ said Colbeck.

  ‘I think not, sir.’

  Clambering into his seat, Gilzean ordered the coachman to drive off. The policemen could simply watch as the vehicle was allowed to leave the estate unimpeded. Tallis was fuming with impotent rage. When the departing carriage was out of sight, he told his driver to take him to the house. Colbeck was standing at the front door when they arrived.

  ‘Have you taken leave of your senses, Inspector?’ said Tallis, getting out of the vehicle to confront him. ‘From that distance, they could easily have shot you.’

  ‘I wanted to make sure that Miss Andrews was unhurt.’

  ‘You should not have put your own life in danger, man.’

  ‘I survived,’ said Colbeck, removing his top hat and examining it for holes. ‘And so did my hat, it seems.’

  ‘This is no time for humour. We have just been compelled to let two of the worst criminals I have ever encountered go free, and all that you can do is to joke about it.’

  ‘Their freedom is only temporary, Superintendent.’

  ‘How can we catch them when we have no idea where they have gone? Their escape was obviously planned.’

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Colbeck, ‘but they did not expect to put their plan into action for a few days yet. They had to leave in a hurry and that means they will not have had time to cover their tracks. Let us search the house,’ he urged. ‘Well soon find out where they are heading.’

  Madeleine Andrews did not wish to be seated beside Thomas Sholto but it spared her the agony of having to face him during the journey. Instead, as the carriage rumbled along at speed, she was looking at Sir Humphrey Gilzean, a man who paid such meticulous attention to his clothing that she was reminded of Colbeck. She felt a pang of regret that she had got so close to the Inspector only to be dragged away again. For his part, Gilzean was also reminded of someone. It put sadness into his eyes and the faintest tremor into his voice.

  ‘That cloak belonged to my wife,’ he said, pursing his lips as a painful memory intruded. ‘Nothing but extremity would have made me loan it to another woman, but it is a convenient disguise.’

  ‘Where are you taking me?’ she asked.

  ‘Somewhere you would never have dreamt of going.’ He saw her glance over her shoulder. ‘Do not bother to look for help, Miss Andrews,’ he advised. ‘They are not following us. I have kept watch on the road since we left the house.’

  Sholto was angry. ‘How did they get to us so soon?’ he growled.

  ‘Do not worry about that now.’

  ‘I do worry, Humphrey. I thought that you had led them astray.’

  ‘So did I,’ admitted Gilzean, ‘but we have a formidable adversary in this Inspector Colbeck. I’m sure that Miss Andrews will agree. He is a remarkable man.’

  ‘He is,’ she affirmed, ‘and he will catch you somehow.’

  ‘Not if he values your life,’ said Sholto.

  ‘Besides,’ added Gilzean, ‘the gallant Inspector will have to find us first and there is no chance of that. His writ does not run as far as the place we are going.’

  Madeleine was alarmed. ‘And where is that?’ she said.

  ‘You will see. But when we get there, I’m afraid that I will have to divest you of that cloak. It suited my wife perfectly,’ he went on with a mournful smile, ‘but it does not become you at all.’

  ‘No,’ said Sholto, harshly. ‘You belong in the servant’s dress.’

  ‘There is no need for bad manners, Thomas,’ scolded Gilzean.

  ‘Miss Andrews will get no courtesy from me – not after she tried to crack my head open with a wine bottle.’

  ‘Noblesse oblige.’

  ‘To hell with that, Humphrey! Do you know what I hope?’ he said, turning to glare at Madeleine. ‘In one way, I hope that Inspector Colbeck does turn up again.’

  ‘Do you?’ she said, quailing inwardly.

  ‘Yes, I do – because it will give me the perfect excuse to put a bullet through your head.’

  Madeleine said nothing for the remainder of the journey.

  While the servants were being questioned by Superintendent Tallis, the house was searched by Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming. The three men met up in the drawing room. Hands behind his back, Tallis was pulling on a cigar and standing in front of the marble fireplace. His expression revealed that he had learnt little fro
m his interrogations.

  ‘It is useless,’ he said, exhaling a cloud of smoke. ‘The servants were told nothing. Even if they had been, they are so ridiculously loyal to their master that they would not betray him.’ He fixed an eye on Leeming. ‘What did you find, Sergeant?’

  ‘Only that Sir Humphrey has a lot more money than I do, sir,’ replied the other. ‘Parts of the house are almost palatial. It made me feel as if I was not supposed to be here.’

  ‘This is where those terrible crimes were hatched.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Colbeck, ‘and I think that I know why.’ He handed Tallis a faded newspaper. ‘This was tucked away in a desk drawer in the library. It contains a report of the death of Lady Gilzean.’

  ‘She was thrown from a horse. I told you that.’

  ‘But you did not explain how it happened, Inspector. Read the article and you will see that Sir Humphrey and his wife were out riding when the sound of a train whistle disturbed the animals. Lady Gilzean’s horse reared and she was thrown from the saddle.’

  ‘No wonder he detests railways,’ commented Leeming.

  ‘Who can blame him?’ said Tallis, reading the report. ‘It was a real tragedy. Lady Gilzean’s neck was broken in the fall. However,’ he went on, putting the newspaper on the mantelpiece, ‘it is one thing to despise the railway system but quite another to wage war against it.’

  ‘It’s time for the steam locomotive to strike back,’ said Colbeck.

  ‘What are you talking about, Inspector?’

  ‘This, sir.’ Colbeck held up a booklet. ‘I found this in the desk. It’s a timetable for sailings from the port of Bristol. Sir Humphrey Gilzean and his accomplice are fleeing the country.’

  ‘Going abroad?’ gasped Tallis. ‘Then we’ll never catch them.’

  ‘But we will, sir. They are only travelling by carriage, remember, and they will have to pace the horses carefully. We, on the other hand, will be able to go much faster.’ Colbeck smiled at him. ‘By train.’

  When the carriage reached Bristol, the port was a veritable hive of activity. Though narrow at that point, the estuary was deep enough to accommodate the largest ships and several steamers were moored at their landing stages. Madeleine Andrews viewed it all with utter dismay. Furnished with locks, wharves and quays some 6000 feet in length, the harbour was a forest of masts through which she could see a vast number of sailors and passengers milling around. Hundreds of seagulls wove patterns in the air and added their cries to the general pandemonium. Madeleine shivered. To someone who had never travelled more than ten miles from London in her entire life, the thought of sailing across the sea induced a positive dread.

  Yet she had no option. She had been warned what would happen if she dared to call for help and could not take the risk. With her hood up, she was taken aboard between Sir Humphrey Gilzean and Thomas Sholto, and – to her astonishment – was described as Lady Gilzean, leaving the country on her husband’s passport. Before she knew what was happening, Madeleine was taken below to a cabin, where she was tied up and gagged. Sholto stood over her.

  ‘If we have any trouble from you,’ he threatened, cupping her chin in his palm, ‘I’ll throw you overboard.’

  ‘You’ll do nothing of the kind,’ said Gilzean, easing him away from her. ‘Miss Andrews came to our rescue at the house. Without her, we would now be in custody. Show some appreciation, Thomas.’

  ‘Leave me alone with her – and I will.’

  ‘Come, you need some fresh air.’

  ‘What I need is five minutes with her.’

  Gilzean took him by the lapel. ‘Did you hear what I said?’

  Sholto obeyed with reluctance. After tossing a sullen glance at Madeleine, he left the cabin. Gilzean paused at the open door.

  ‘I am sorry that you got caught up in all this,’ he said with a note of genuine apology, ‘but there was no help for it. Had your father chosen a different occupation, you would not be here now.’ There were yells from above and the sound of movement on the deck. ‘We are about to set sail,’ he noted with satisfaction. ‘Where is Inspector Colbeck now?’

  Madeleine could not speak but there was panic in her eyes. Gilzean went out and shut the door behind him, turning a key in the lock. He had been unfailingly polite to her and had shielded her from Sholto, but he was still taking her as a prisoner to a foreign country. As the ship rocked and the wind began to flap its canvas, she knew that they had cast off. Madeleine was out of Inspector Colbeck’s reach now. All that she could do was to resort to prayer once more.

  A few minutes later, she heard the sound of a key in the lock. Thinking that it would be Thomas Sholto, she closed her eyes and tensed instinctively, fearing that he had slipped back to get his revenge for what had happened in the wine cellar. But the person who stepped into the cabin was Robert Colbeck and the first thing that he did was to remove her gag. When she opened her eyes, Madeleine let out a cry of relief. As Colbeck began to untie the ropes that held her, tears of joy rolled down her cheeks.

  ‘How ever did you find us?’ she asked.

  ‘I took the precaution of bringing my Bradshaw with me.’

  ‘The railway guide?’

  ‘A steam train will always outrun the best horses, Miss Andrews,’ he said, untying her legs and setting her free. ‘And I was determined that nobody was going to take you away from me.’

  Madeleine flung herself into his arms and he held her tight until her sobbing slowly died down. He then stood back to appraise her.

  ‘Have they harmed you in any way?’

  ‘No, Inspector. But one of them keeps threatening to.’

  ‘His name is Thomas Sholto,’ said Colbeck. ‘We waited until we saw them come up on deck. There was no point in trying to apprehend them while they had you in their grasp. Stay here, Miss Andrews,’ he went on, moving to the door. ‘I’ll be back in due course.’

  ‘Be careful,’ she said. ‘They are both armed.’

  ‘They are also off guard. Excuse me.’

  Standing at the bulwark, Gilzean and Sholto ignored the people who were waving the ship off from the shore and congratulated themselves on their escape. Gilzean was honest.

  ‘It was a Pyrrhic victory,’ he conceded. ‘I kept my promise to Lucinda and struck back at the railway, but it means, alas, that I am parted from her for a while. No matter, Thomas. I will be able to slip back from France in time. Meanwhile, we have money enough to live in great comfort and anonymity.’

  ‘What about that little vixen down in the cabin?’

  ‘She will be released as soon as we are safely in France.’

  ‘Released?’ said Sholto, mutinously. ‘After what she did to me?’

  ‘We have no more need of her, Thomas.’

  ‘You may not have – but I certainly do!’

  ‘No,’ decreed Gilzean. ‘Miss Andrews has borne enough suffering. As soon as we dock, I’ll pay for her return passage and give her money to make her way home from Bristol.’

  ‘But she will be able to tell them where we are.’

  ‘France is a much bigger country than England. Even if they sent someone after us – and that is highly unlikely – he would never find us.’

  ‘According to you, Inspector Colbeck would never find us.’

  Gilzean was complacent. ‘We have seen the last of him now,’ he said. ‘Bid farewell to England. We are about to start a new life.’

  The detectives crept up until they stood only yards behind the two men. Victor Leeming had a hand on his pistol but Robert Colbeck favoured a more physical approach. Since it was Thomas Sholto who had spirited Madeleine away, the Inspector tackled him first. Rushing forward, he grabbed Sholto by the legs and tipped him over the side of the ship. There was a despairing cry, followed by a loud splash. Gilzean spared no thought for his friend. He reacted quickly, pulling out a pistol. Before Gilzean could discharge it, Colbeck got a firm hold on his wrist and twisted it so that he turned the barrel of the weapon upwards.

  Seeing the pist
ol, almost everyone else on deck backed away as the two men struggled for mastery. Sergeant Leeming pointed his own gun at Gilzean and ordered him to stop but the command went unheard. And since the combatants were now spinning around so violently, it was impossible for Leeming to get a clear shot at the man. He jumped back as Colbeck tripped his adversary up and fell to the deck on top of him. Gilzean fought with even more ferocity now, trying to wrest his hand free so that he could fire his weapon. Using all his strength, he slowly brought the barrel of the gun around so that it was almost trained on its target. Colbeck refused to be beaten, finding a reserve of energy that enabled him to force the pistol downwards and away from himself.

  Gilzean’s finger tightened on the trigger and the gun went off. A yell of pain mingled with a gasp of horror that came from the watching crowd. Hearing the sound of the gunshot from below, Madeleine came running up on deck, fearing that Colbeck had been killed. Instead, she found him standing over Gilzean, who, compelled to shoot himself, was clutching a shoulder from which blood was now oozing.

  ‘Why did you not leave him to me?’ complained Leeming.

  ‘I wanted the privilege myself.’

  ‘But I had a weapon.’

  ‘I am sorry, Victor,’ said Colbeck with a weary grin. ‘You can arrest Thomas Sholto, but you’ll have to haul him out of the water first.’ He turned to Madeleine. ‘They’ll not trouble you again, Miss Andrews,’ he promised. ‘Horses and ships have their place in the scheme of things but they were not enough to defeat the steam locomotive. That is what brought them down. Sir Humphrey was caught by the railways.’

  Richard Mayne, the senior Police Commissioner, looked down at the newspapers spread out on his desk and savoured the headlines. The arrest of the two men behind the train robbery and its associated crimes was universally acclaimed as a triumph for the Detective Department at Scotland Yard. After sustaining so much press criticism, they had now been vindicated. That gave Mayne a sense of profound satisfaction. While he could bask in the general praise, however, he was the first to accept that the plaudits should go elsewhere.

  He was glad, therefore, when Superintendent Tallis entered with Inspector Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming. The Commissioner came from behind his desk to shake hands with all three in turn, starting, significantly, with Robert Colbeck, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Tallis. The Superintendent shifted his feet.