‘Oh, please don’t make these awful plans,’ begged poor Anne. ‘You’ll make an adventure come, if you go on like this.’
Nobody took the least notice of her. Julian looked at Jock’s excited face. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘if we do go there
again, we’ll tell you. And if we think we’ll go watching for spook-trains, we’ll take you with us.’
Jock looked as if he could hug Julian. ‘That would be terrific,’ he said. ‘Thanks a lot. Spook-trains! I say, just suppose we really did see one! Who’d be driving it? Where would it come from?’
‘Out of the tunnel, Wooden-Leg Sam says,’ said Dick. ‘But I don’t see how we’d spot it, except by the noise it made, because apparently the spook-trains only arrive in the dark of the night. Never in the daytime. We wouldn’t see much, even if we were there.’
It was such an exciting subject to Jock that he persisted in talking about it all the afternoon. Anne got tired of listening, and went to sleep with Biddy’s puppy in her arms. Timmy curled up by George and went to sleep too. He wanted to go for a walk, but he could see that there was no hope with all this talking going on.
It was tea-time before any of them had expected it. The bell rang, and Jock looked most surprised.
‘Tea! Would you believe it? Well, I have had an exciting afternoon talking about all this. And look here, if you don’t make up your minds to go spook-train hunting I’ll jolly well go off by myself. If only I could have an adventure like the kind you’ve had, I’d be happy.’
They went in to tea, after waking Anne up with difficulty. She took the puppy back to Biddy, who received it gladly and licked it all over.
Julian was surprised to find that he was quite hungry again. ‘Well,’ he said, as he sat down at the table, ‘I didn’t imagine I’d feel hungry again for a week – but I do. What a marvellous tea, Mrs Andrews. Isn’t Jock lucky to have meals like this always!’
There were homemade scones with new honey. There were slices of bread thickly spread with butter, and new-made cream cheese to go with it. There was sticky brown gingerbread, hot from the oven, and a big solid fruit cake that looked almost like a plum pudding when it was cut, it was so black.
‘Oh dear! I wish now I hadn’t had so much dinner,’ sighed Anne. ‘I don’t feel hungry enough to eat a bit of everything and I would so like to!’
Mrs Andrews laughed. ‘You eat what you can, and I’ll give you some to take away, too,’ she said. ‘You can have some cream cheese, and the scones and honey – and some of the bread I made this morning. And maybe you’d like a slab of the gingerbread. I made plenty.’
‘Oh, thanks,’ said Julian. ‘We’ll be all right tomorrow with all that. You’re a marvellous cook, Mrs Andrews. I wish I lived on your farm.’
There was the sound of a car coming slowly up the rough track to the farmhouse, and Mrs Andrews looked up. ‘That’s Mr Andrews come back,’ she said. ‘My husband, you know, Jock’s stepfather.’
Julian thought she looked a little worried. Perhaps Mr Andrews didn’t like children and wouldn’t be pleased to see them sitting round his table when he came home tired.
‘Would you like us to go, Mrs Andrews?’ he asked politely. ‘Perhaps Mr Andrews would like a bit of peace for his meal when he comes in – and we’re rather a crowd, aren’t we?’
Jock’s mother shook her head. ‘No, you can stay. I’ll get him a meal in the other room if he’d like it.’
Mr Andrews came in. He wasn’t in the least like Anne or the others had imagined him to be. He was a short, dark little man, with a weak face and a nose
much too big for it. He looked harassed and bad-tempered, and stopped short when he saw the five children.
‘Hallo, dear,’ said Mrs Andrews. ‘Jock’s got his friends here today. Would you like a bit of tea in your room? I can easily put a tray there.’
‘Well,’ said Mr Andrews, smiling a watery kind of smile, ‘perhaps it would be best. I’ve had a worrying kind of day, and not much to eat.’
Til get you a tray of ham and pickles and bread,’ said his wife. ‘It won’t take a minute. You go and wash.’
Mr Andrews went out. Anne was surprised that he seemed so small and looked rather stupid. She had imagined someone big and burly, strong and clever, who was always going about doing grand deals and making a lot of money. Well, he must be cleverer than he looked, to make enough money to give Mrs Andrews all she.needed for her farm.
Mrs Andrews bustled about with this and that, laying a tray with a snow-white cloth, and plates of food. Mr Andrews could be heard in the bathroom, splashing as he washed. Then he came downstairs and put his head in at the door. ‘My meal ready?’ he asked. ‘Well, Jock – had a good day?’
‘Yes, thanks,’ said Jock, as his stepfather took the tray from his mother and turned to go. ‘We went all round the farm this morning – and we talked and talked this afternoon. And oh, I say – do you know anything about spook-trains, sir?’
Mr Andrews was just going out of the door. He turned in surprise. ‘Spook-trains? What are you talking about?’
‘Well, Julian says there’s an old deserted railway yard a good way from here, and spook-trains are supposed to come out of the tunnel there in the dark of
night,’ said Jock. ‘Have you heard of them?’
Mr Andrews stood stock still, his eyes on his stepson. He looked dismayed and shocked. Then he came back into the room and kicked the door shut behind him.
‘I’ll have my tea here after all,’ he said. ‘Well, to think you’ve heard of those spook-trains! I’ve been careful not to mention them to your mother or to you, Jock, for fear of scaring you!’
‘Gee!’ said Dick. ‘Are they really true then? They can’t be.’
‘You tell me all you know, and how you know about it,’ said Mr Andrews, sitting down at the table with his tray. ‘Go on. Don’t miss out a thing. I want to hear everything.’
Julian hesitated. ‘Oh – there’s nothing really to tell, sir -just a lot of nonsense.’
‘You tell it me!’ almost shouted Mr Andrews. ‘Then I’ll tell you a few things. And I tell you, you won’t go near that old railway yard again – no, that you won’t!’
8 A lazy evening
The five children and Mrs Andrews stared in surprise at Mr Andrews, when he shouted at them. He repeated some of his words again.
‘Go on! You tell me all you know. And then I’ll tell you!’
Julian decided to tell, very shortly, what had happened at the old railway yard, and what Wooden-Leg Sam had said. He made the tale sound rather bald and dull. Mr Andrews listened to it with the greatest interest, never once taking his eyes off Julian.
Then he sat back and drank a whole cup of strong tea in one gulp. The children waited for him to speak, wondering what he had to say.
‘Now,’ he said, making his voice sound important and impressive, ‘you listen to me. Don’t any of you ever go down to that yard again. It’s a bad place.’
‘Why?’ asked Julian. ‘What do you mean – a bad place?’
‘Things have happened there – years and years ago,’ said Mr Andrews. ‘Bad things. Accidents. It was all shut up after that and the tunnel wasn’t used any more. See? Nobody was allowed to go there, and nobody did, because they were scared. They knew it was a bad place, where bad things happen.’
Anne felt frightened. ‘But Mr Andrews – you don’t mean there really are spook-trains, do you?’ she asked, her face rather pale.
Mr Andrews pursed up his lips and nodded very solemnly indeed. ‘That’s just what I do mean. Spook-trains come and go. Nobody knows why. But it’s bad luck to be there when they come. They might take you away, see?’
Julian laughed. ‘Oh – not as bad as that, sir, surely! Anyway, you’re frightening Anne, so let’s change the subject. I don’t believe in spook-trains.’
But Mr Andrews didn’t seem to want to stop talking about the trains. ‘Wooden-Leg Sam was right to hide himself when they come along,’ he said. ‘I don’t know how he manages to stay on in a bad place like that. Never knowing when a train is going to come creeping out of that tunnel in the darkness.’
Julian was not going to have Anne frightened any more. He got up from the table and turned to Mrs Andrews.