XXVI. A MYSTERIOUS CRIME
Arriving in good time at the little station at Verrieres, where he wasabout to take a train to Paris to keep his appointment at the LawCourts, the old steward Dollon gave his parting instructions to his twochildren, who had come to see him off.
"I must, of course, call upon Mme. de Vibray," he said, "and I don't yetknow what time M. Fuselier wants to see me at his office. Anyhow, if Idon't come back to-morrow, I will the next day, without fail. Well,little ones, I'm just off now, so say good-bye and get home as fast asyou can. It looks to me as if there was going to be a storm, and Ishould like to know that you were safe at home."
With heavy creaking of iron wheels, and hoarse blowing off of steam fromthe engine, the Paris train drew into the station. The steward gave afinal kiss to his little son and daughter and got into a second-classcarriage.
* * * * *
In a neighbouring village a clock had just struck three.
The storm had been raging since early in the evening, but now it seemedinformed with a fresh fury: the rain was lashing down more fiercely, andthe wind was blowing harder still, making the slender poplars along therailway line bow and bend before the squalls and assume the mostfantastic shapes, but vaguely shown against the night. The night wasinky black. The keenest eye could make out nothing at all distinctly,even at the distance of a few yards: the darkness was so dense as toseem absolutely solid.
Nevertheless, along the railway embankment, a man was making his waywith steady step, seeming not a whit disturbed by the tragic horror ofthe storm.
He was a man of about thirty, rather well dressed in a large waterproofcoat, the collar of which, turned up to his ears, hid the lower part ofhis face, and a big felt hat with brim turned down protecting him fairlywell from the worst of the weather. The man fought his way against thewind, which drove into his overcoat with such force that sometimes italmost stopped his progress, and he trod the stony track without payingheed to the sorry plight into which it would most surely put the thinboots he was wearing.
"Awful weather!" he growled: "I don't remember such a shocking night foryears: wind, rain, every conceivable thing! But I mustn't grumble, forthe total absence of moon will be uncommonly useful for my purpose." Aflash of lightning streaked the horizon, and the man stopped and lookedquickly about him. "I can't be far from the place," he thought, andagain went on his way. Presently he heaved a sigh of relief. "Here I amat last."
At this spot the line was completely enclosed between two high slopes,or ran at the bottom of a deep cutting.
"It's better here," the man said to himself; "the wind passes well abovemy head, and the cutting gives good shelter." He stopped and carefullydeposited on the ground a rather bulky bundle he had been carrying underhis arm; then he began to pace up and down, stamping his feet in aneffort to keep warm. "It has just struck three," he muttered. "From thetime-table I can't expect anything for another ten minutes. Well, bettertoo soon than too late!" He contemplated the bundle which he had laiddown a few minutes before. "It's heavier than I thought, and deucedly inthe way. But it was absolutely necessary to bring it. And down here inthis cutting, there is nothing for me to be anxious about: the grass isthick, so I can run, and the line is so straight that I shall see thelights of the train a long way off." A thin smile curled his lips. "Whowould have thought, when I was in America, that I should ever find it souseful to have learnt how to jump a train?"
A dull sound in the distance caught his ear. In a second he had sprungto his bundle, picked it up, and, choosing a spot on the ballast,crouched down listening. At the place where he stood the line ran up asteep acclivity. It was from the lower end of this that the noise he hadheard proceeded, and now was growing louder, almost deafening. It wasthe heavy, regular puffing of a powerful engine coming up a steepgradient, under full steam.
"No mistake: my star is with me!" the man muttered, and as the trainapproached he stretched his muscles and, taking a firmer grip of hisbundle, he bent forward in the stooping attitude that runners take whenabout to start off in a race.
With a heavy roar, and enveloped in clouds of steam, the train came upto where he was, travelling slowly because of the steep gradient,certainly less than twenty miles an hour. The moment the engine hadpassed him, the man started off, lithe as a cat, and ran at the top ofhis speed. The train, of course, gained upon him; the tender, luggagevans, and third-class carriages passed him, and a second-class carriagewas just coming up with him. The pace alone would have deprived almostanyone else of power of thought, but this man was evidently a first-rateathlete, for the moment he caught sight of the second-class carriage hetook his decision. With a tremendous effort he caught hold of thehand-rail and sprang upon the footboard, where, with extraordinaryskill, he contrived to remain.
Reaching the summit of the slope, the train gathered speed, and with aneven louder roar began its headlong journey through the darkness and thestorm, which seemed to increase in intensity with every passing minute.
For a few seconds the man hung on where he was. Then, when he hadregained his breath, he got on to the upper step and listened at thedoor of the corridor at which he found himself. "No one there," hemuttered. "Besides, everyone will be asleep," and, chancing everything,he rose up, opened the door, and stepped into the second-class carriagewith a grunt of relief.
Making no attempt to conceal himself, he walked boldly into the lavatoryand washed his face that was blackened with the smoke from outside, andthen, in the most leisurely, natural way possible, he came out of thelavatory and walked along the corridor, soliloquising aloud, manifestlynot minding whether he were overheard.
"It's positively maddening! No one can sleep, with travelling companionslike that!"
As he spoke he went along the corridor, rapidly glancing into everycompartment. In one, three men were asleep, obviously unaware thatanyone was surveying them from outside. The door of the compartment wasajar, and the stranger noiselessly stepped within. The fourth corner wasunoccupied, and here the man took his seat, laying his bundle downbeside him, and feigning sleep. He waited, motionless, for a goodquarter of an hour, until he was quite satisfied that his companionswere really sleeping soundly, then he slid his hand into the bundle byhis side, seemed to be doing something inside it, then withdrew his handnoiselessly, stepped out of the compartment, and carefully closed thedoor.
In the corridor he drew a sigh of relieved satisfaction, and took acigar from his pocket.
"Everything is going splendidly," he said to himself. "I was cursingthis awful storm just now, but it is wonderfully useful to me. On such anight as this no one would dream of opening the windows." He strolled upand down, holding on to the hand-rail with one hand to maintain himselfagainst the rocking of the train, and every now and then taking out hiswatch with the other to see the time. "I haven't any too much time," hemuttered. "I shall have to be quick, or my friend will miss his train!"He smiled, as if amused at the idea, and then, holding his cigar awayfrom him so as not to inhale the smoke, he drew several deep breaths."There is a faint smell," he said, "but you would have to be told of itto detect it. The devil of it is that it so often causes nightmare; thatwould be awful!" He suspended his patrol and listened again. There wasno sound to be heard from within the compartments except the snoring ofa few travellers and the monotonous, rhythmical noise of the wheelspassing over the joints of the rails. "Come: I've waited twenty minutes;it would be risky to wait longer; let's get to work!"
He stepped briskly back into the compartment, and furtively glancinginto the corridor to make sure that no one was there, he went across tothe opposite window and opened it wide. He put his head out into the airfor a minute or two, and then turned to examine his travellingcompanions. All three were still sound asleep.
The man gave vent to a dry chuckle. He drew his bundle towards him, feltuntil he found something within it, and flung it back on to the seat.Then he walked up to the man opposite him, slipped his hand inside hiscoat and abstra
cted a pocket-book and began to examine the papers itcontained. "Ah!" he exclaimed suddenly; "that was what I was afraid of!"and taking one of the papers he put it inside his own pocket-book, choseone from his own and put it into the other man's pocket-book, and then,having effected this exchange, replaced the man's property and chuckledagain. "You do sleep!"
And indeed, although the pick-pocket took no particular precaution, theman continued to sleep soundly, as did the other two men in thecompartment.
The thief looked once more at his watch.
"Time!"
He leaned out of the open window and slipped back the safety catch. Thenhe opened the door quite wide, took the sleeping traveller by theshoulders and picked him up from the seat, and with all his strengthsent him rolling out on to the line!
The next moment he seized from the rack the light articles thatevidently belonged to his victim, and threw them out after him.
When he had finished his ghastly work he rubbed his hands insatisfaction. "Good!" he said, and closing the door again, but leavingthe window down, he left the compartment, not troubling to pick up hisbelongings, and walked along the corridors to another second-classcompartment, towards the front of the train, in which he calmlyinstalled himself.
"Luck has been with me," he muttered as he stretched himself out on theseat. "Everything has gone off well; no one has seen me, and those twofools who might have upset my plans will wake up quite naturally whenthey begin to feel the cold; and they will attribute the headache theywill probably feel to their tiring journey."
A train, travelling in the opposite direction, suddenly roared past thewindow and made him jump. He started up, and smiled.
"'Gad! I said my friend would miss his train, but he'll catch it inanother five minutes! In another five minutes, luggage and body and theentire caboodle will be mincemeat!" and as if completely reassured bythe idea he chuckled again. "Nothing could have gone better: I can havea rest, and in an hour's time I shall be at Juvisy, where, thanks to myforethought, I shall be able to whitewash myself--literally." One thing,however, still seemed to worry him: he did not know exactly where on theline he had thrown his unhappy victim, but he had an idea that the trainhad run through a small station shortly afterwards; if that was so, thebody might be found sooner than he would have liked. He tried to dismissthe notion from his mind, but he caught sight of the telegraph postsspeeding past the windows, and he shook his fist at them malignantly."That is the only thing that can harm me now," he muttered.
* * * * *
"Juvisy! Juvisy! Wait here two minutes!"
It was barely half-past six, and the porters hurried along the train,calling out the name of the station, and rousing sleepy travellers fromtheir dreams. A man jumped nimbly out of a second-class carriage andwalked towards the exit from the station, holding out his ticket."Season," he said, and passed out rapidly.
"Good idea, that season ticket," he said to himself; "much lessdangerous than an ordinary ticket which the police could have traced."
He walked briskly towards the subway, crossed the main road, and took aside turning that led down towards the Seine. Taking no notice of themud, the man went into a field and hid himself in a little thicket onthe river bank. He looked carefully all around him to make sure that hewas unobserved, then took off his overcoat, jacket and trousers, anddrawing a bundle from one of the pockets of his large waterproof,proceeded to dress himself anew. As soon as he was dressed, he spreadthe waterproof out on the ground, folded up in it the clothes and hat hehad previously been wearing, added a number of heavy stones, and tiedthe whole bundle up with a piece of string. He swung it once or twice atthe full length of his arm, and sent it hurtling right into the middleof the river, where it sank at once.
A few minutes later a bricklayer in his working clothes presentedhimself at the Juvisy booking office.
"A workman's ticket to Paris, please, missus," he said, and having gotit, the man went on to the departure platform. "It would have been riskyto use my own ticket," he muttered. "This return ticket will put themoff the scent," and with a smile he waited for the train that would takehim to Paris.
* * * * *
The slow train from Luchon was drawing near its Paris terminus and thetravellers were all making hasty toilettes and tidying themselves upafter their long night journey. Just, however, as it was approaching thegoods station it slowed down and stopped. The passengers, surprised, puttheir heads out of the windows, to ascertain the reason for theunexpected delay, hazarding various conjectures but unanimous in theirvituperation of the company.
Three men were walking slowly along the line, looking carefully at everydoor. Two were porters, and they were manifesting the most respectfulattention to everything the third man said: he was a grave individual,very correctly attired.
"Look there, sir," one of the porters exclaimed; "there is a door wherethe safety catch has either been undone or not fastened; that is theonly one on the train."
"That is so," said the gentleman, and grasping the handle he opened thedoor of the compartment and got in. Two travellers were busy strappingup their bags, and they turned round in simultaneous surprise.
"You will pardon me, gentlemen, when you know who I am," said theintruder, and throwing open his coat he showed his tricolour scarf. "Ihave to make enquiry relative to a dead body that has been found on theline near Bretigny; it probably fell from this train, and perhaps fromthis compartment, for I have just observed that the safety catch is notfastened. Where did you get into the train?"
The two passengers looked at one another in astonishment.
"What a dreadful thing!" one of them exclaimed. "Why, sir, to-night,while my friend here and I were asleep, one of our fellow-travellers diddisappear. I made a remark about it, but this gentleman very reasonablypointed out that he must have got out at some station while we wereasleep."
The official was keenly interested.
"What was this passenger like?"
"Quite easily recognised, sir; a man of about sixty, rather stout, andwearing whiskers."
"That tallies with the description. Might he have been a butler or asteward?"
"That is exactly what he looked like."
"Then that must be the man whose body has been found upon the line. ButI do not know whether it is to be regarded as a case of suicide or ofmurder, for some hand baggage has been picked up as well: a suicidewould not have thrown his luggage out, and a thief would not have wantedto get rid of it."
The passenger who had not yet spoken, broke in.
"You are wrong, sir; at any rate all his luggage was not thrown on tothe line," and he pointed to the bundle left upon the seat. "I thoughtthat belonged to the gentleman here, but he has just told me it isn'this."
The official rapidly unfastened the straps and started back.
"Hullo! A bottle of liquid carbonic acid! Now what does that mean?" Helooked at it. "Did this bundle belong to the man who disappeared?"
The two passengers shook their heads.
"I don't think so," one of them said; "I should certainly have noticedthat Scotch rug; but I did not see it."
"Then there was a fourth passenger in this compartment?" the officialenquired.
"No, we travelled alone," said one of the men, but the other dissented.
"It is very odd, and I am not sure about it, but I really am wonderingwhether someone did not get into our compartment last night while wewere asleep. I have a vague impression that someone did, but I can't besure."
"Do try to remember, sir," the official urged him; "it is of the veryhighest importance."
But the passenger shook his shoulders doubtfully.
"No, I really can't say anything definite; and, besides, I have ashocking headache."
The official was silent for a minute or two.
"In my opinion, gentlemen, you have been uncommonly lucky to escapemurder yourselves. I do not quite understand yet how the murder wasdone, but I incline to thi
nk it proves almost incredible daring.However----" He stopped and put his head out of the window. "You cansend the train on now," he called to a porter, and resumed: "However, Imust ask you to accompany me to the stationmaster's office and give meyour names and addresses, and to help me afterwards in the conduct ofthe legal investigation."
The two travellers looked at one another in distressed surprise.
"It is really appalling," said one of them; "you're not safe anywherenowadays."
"You really aren't," the other agreed. "Such a number of awful murdersand crimes are being perpetrated every day that you would think not one,but a dozen Fantomas were at work!"