They arrived home at the camp about tea-time and Anne got a fine tea ready. They took it down to eat in front of Mr Luffy’s tent. As the evening came on Julian and Dick felt excitement rising in them. In the daytime neither of them really believed a word about the ‘spook-trains’, but as the sun sank and long shadows crept down the hills they felt pleasantly thrilled. Would they really see anything exciting that night?
It was a very dark night at first, because clouds lay across the sky and hid even the stars. The boys said good night to the girls and snuggled down into their sleeping-bags. They watched the sky through the tent opening.
Gradually the big clouds thinned out. A few stars
appeared. The clouds thinned still more and fled away in rags. Soon the whole sky was bright with pin-points of light, and a hundred thousand stars looked down on the moorlands.
‘We shall have a bit of starlight to see by,’ whispered Julian. ‘That’s good. I don’t want to stumble about over the heather and break my ankle in rabbit-holes in the pitch darkness. Nor do I want to use my torch on the way to the yard in case it’s seen.’
‘It’s going to be fun!’ Dick whispered back. ‘I hope Jock comes. It will be maddening if he doesn’t.’
He did come. There was a scrambling over the heather and once again a shadow appeared at the tent opening.
‘Julian! Dick! I’ve come. Are you ready?’
It was Jock’s voice, of course. Dick’s thumb pressed the switch of his torch and for a moment its light fell on Jock’s red, excited face, and then was switched off again.
‘Hallo, Jock! So you were able to come,’ said Dick. ‘I say, was that you in the lorry this morning, going by the green pool?’
‘Yes. Did you see me? I saw you and waved like mad,’ said Jock. ‘I wanted to stop the lorry and get down and speak to you, but the driver’s an awful bad-tempered sort of fellow. He wouldn’t hear of stopping. Said my stepfather would be wild with him if he did. Did you see him – my stepfather, I mean? He was in his car behind.’
‘Were you off to market or something?’ asked Julian.
‘I expect that’s where the lorry was going,’ said Jock. ‘It was empty, so I suppose my stepfather was going to pick up something there. I came back in the car. The lorry was supposed to come later.’
‘How did you like Cecil Dearlove?’ asked Dick, grinning in the darkness.
‘Awful! Worse than his name,’ groaned Jock. ‘Wanted me to play soldiers all the time! The frightful thing is I’ve got to have him at the farm for the day tomorrow. Another day wasted. What shall I do with him?’
‘Roll him in the pig-sty,’ suggested Dick. ‘Or put him with Biddy’s puppies and let him sleep there. Tell him to play soldiers with them.’
Jock chuckled. ‘I wish I could. The worst of it is Mum is awfully pleased that my stepfather’s got this Cecil boy for me to be friends with. Don’t let’s talk about it. Are you ready to start off?’
‘Yes,’ said Julian, and began to scramble quietly out of his bag. ‘We didn’t tell the girls. Anne doesn’t want to come, and I don’t want George to leave Anne by herself. Now, let’s be very, very quiet till we’re out of hearing.’
Dick got out of his bag too. The boys had not undressed that night, except for their coats, so all they had to do was to slip these on, and then crawl out of the tent.
‘Which is the way – over there?’ whispered Jock. Julian took his arm and guided him. He hoped he wouldn’t lose his way in the starlit darkness. The moorland look so different at night!
‘If we make for that hill you can dimly see over there against the starlit sky, we should be going in the right direction,’ said Julian. So on they went, keeping towards the dark hill that rose up to the west.
It seemed very much farther to the railway yard at night than in the daytime. The three boys stumbled along, sometimes almost falling as their feet caught in tufts of heather. They were glad when they found
some sort of path they could keep on.
‘This is about where we met the shepherd,’ said Dick, in a low voice. He didn’t know why he spoke so quietly. He just felt as if he must. ‘I’m sure we can’t be very far off now.’
‘[Tiey went on for some way, and then Julian pulled Dick by the arm. ‘Look,’ he said. ‘Down there, I believe that’s the old yard. You can see the line* gleaming faintly here and there.’
They stood on the heathery slope above the old yard, straining their eyes. Soon they could make out dim shapes. Yes, it was the railway yard all right.
Jock clutched Julian’s sleeve. ‘Look – there’s a light down there! Do you see it?’
The boys looked – and, sure enough, down in the yard towards the other side of it, was a small yellow light. They stared at it.
‘Oh – I think I know what it is,’ said Dick, at last. ‘It’s the light in the watchman’s little hut – old Wooden-Leg Sam’s candle. Don’t you think so, Ju?’
‘Yes. You’re right,’ said Julian. ‘I tell you what we’ll do – we’ll creep right down into the yard, and go over to the hut. We’ll peep inside and see if old Sam is there. Then we’ll hide somewhere about and wait for the spook-train to come!’
They crept down the slope. Their eyes had got used to the starlight by now, and they were beginning to see fairly well. They got right down to the yard, where their feet made a noise on some cinders there.
They stopped. ‘Someone will hear us if we make a row like this,’ whispered Julian.
‘Who will?’ whispered back Dick. ‘There’s no one here except old Sam in his hut!’
‘How do you know there isn’t?’ said Julian. ‘Good heavens, Jock, don’t make such a row with your feet!’
They stood there, debating what was the best thing to do. ‘We’d better walk right round the edge of the yard,’ said Julian at last. ‘As far as I remember, the grass has grown there. We’ll walk on that.’
So they made their way to the edge of the yard. Sure enough, there was grass there, and they walked on it without a sound. They went slowly and softly to where the light shone dimly in Sam’s little hut.
The window was high and small. It was just about at the level of their heads, and the three boys cautiously eased themselves along to it and looked in.
Wooden-Leg Sam was there. He sat sprawled in a chair, smoking a pipe. He was reading a newspaper, squinting painfully as he did so. He obviously had not had his broken glasses mended yet. On a chair beside him was his wooden leg. He had unstrapped it, and there it lay.
‘He’s not expecting the spook-train tonight, or he wouldn’t have taken off his wooden leg,’ whispered Dick.
The candlelight flickered and shadows jumped about the tiny hut. It was a poor, ill-furnished little place, dirty and untidy. A cup without saucer or handle stood on the table, and a tin kettle boiled on a rusty stove.
Sam put down his paper and rubbed his eyes. He muttered something. The boys could not hear it, but they felt certain it was something about his broken glasses.
‘Are there many lines in this yard?’ whispered Jock, tired of looking in at old Sam. ‘Where do they go to?’
‘About half a mile or so up there is a tunnel,’ said Julian, pointing past Jock. ‘The lines come from there and run here, where they break up in many pairs – for
shunting and so on, in the old days, I suppose, when this place was used.’
‘Let’s go up the lines to the tunnel,’ said Jock. ‘Come on. There’s nothing to be seen here. Let’s walk up to the tunnel.’
‘All right,’ said Julian. ‘We may as well. I don’t expect we’ll see much up there either! I think these spook-trains are all a tall story of old Sam’s!’
They left the little hut with its forlorn candlelight, and made their way round the yard again. Then they followed the single-track line away from the yard and up towards the tunnel. It didn’t seem to matter walking on cinders now, and making a noise. They walked along, talking in low voices.
And then things began to happen! A far-off muffled noise came rumbling out of the tunnel, which was now so near that the boys could see its black mouth. Julian heard it first. He stood still and clutched Dick.