Part 26 (1/2)
”I didna see him myself,” said the superintendent musingly. ”It seems funny-like a man dressed like yon and with his face wrapped up too--and a man forbye that's a stranger to us both, coming along the platform and getting into that carriage, and me not noticing him. I'm not used not to notice people, Robbie.”
”It's your business, George,” said Mr. MacAlister, and then as he gazed at his cousin's thoughtful face, his own grew suddenly animated.
”You're not thinking he's to dae wi' the murder, are you!” he cried.
”I'm not sure what to think till I've had another look into yon carriage,” said the superintendent cautiously.
”We're slowing doon the noo!” cried Mr. MacAlister, ”G.o.d, George, I'll come and hae a look wi' you!”
The train was hardly in the platform before the superintendent was out, with Mr. MacAlister after him, and the door of the next compartment was open almost as soon as the train was at rest. Never had the superintendent been more vigilant; and never had his honest face looked blanker.
”G.o.d! It's empty!” he murmured.
”G.o.d save us!” murmured Mr. MacAlister, and then he was visited by an inspiration which struck his relative afterwards as one of the unhappiest he had ever suffered from. ”This canna be the richt carriage!” he cried. ”Come on, Geordie, let's hae a look in the ithers!”
By the time they had looked into all the compartments of the carriage, the guard was waving his flag and the two men climbed hurriedly in again. The brooding silence of the superintendent infected even Mr.
MacAlister, and neither spoke for several minutes. Then the superintendent said bitterly:
”It was you hurrying me off to look in thae other carriages, Robbie!”
”What was?” inquired Mr. MacAlister a little nervously.
”I ought to have stopped and looked under the seats!”
Mr. MacAlister shook his head and declared firmly:
”There was naething under the seats. I could see that fine. And onyhow we can hae a look at the next stop.”
”As if he'll be waiting for us, now he kens we're looking for him!”
”But there was naething there!” persisted Mr. MacAlister.
”Then what's come over the man? Here were we sitting next the platform.
He can't have got out afore we started, or we'd have seen him. Folks don't disappear into the air! I'll try under the seats, though I doubt the man will have been up and out while we were wasting our time in yon other carriages.”
At the next station they searched that mysterious compartment earnestly and thoroughly, but there was not a sign of the m.u.f.fled stranger, under the seats or anywhere else. Again the superintendent was silent for a s.p.a.ce, and then he said confidentially:
”I'm just wondering if it's worth while reporting the thing, Robbie. The fiscal might have a kin' of unpleasant way of looking at it. Besides, there's really naething to report. Anyhow I'll think it over. And that being the case, the less said the better. I can tell ye all that's known about the case, Robbie; knowing that you'll be discreet.”
”Oh, you can trust me,” said Mr. MacAlister earnestly,--”I'll no breathe a word o' yon man. Weel, now, you were saying you'd tell me the haill story.”
By this judicious arrangement Mr. MacAlister got his money's worth of sensational disclosures, and the superintendent was able to use his discretion and think the incident over. He thought over it very hard and finally decided that he was demonstrating his vigilance quite sufficiently without mentioning the trifling mystery of the empty compartment.
XX
THE SPORTING VISITOR
In summer and autumn, visitors were not uncommon in this remote countryside; mostly shooting or fis.h.i.+ng people who rented the country houses, raised the local prices, and were described by the tradesmen as benefiting the county greatly. But in late autumn and winter this fertilising stream ceased to flow, and when the trains from the south crawled in, the porters and the boots from the hotels resigned themselves to welcoming a merely commercial form of traveller.