Theodore frowned, his suspicions now raised. He walked briskly down to the compartment where the door was still open, and peered in. The two ladies were still there, and they were crying, clinging to one another with frightened looks.
“We were robbed, sir! Call for help, please!” one lady said while the other hung her head and appeared inconsolable.
Robert, who was at Theodore’s shoulder, spun around and began shouting for a guard. Other people crowded in, some taking seats in the same compartment, offering sympathy and advice to the sobbing ladies. Yet a guard did not jump into the carriage until the train was setting off again, and Theodore grabbed him; it was the same one who had told them not to enter that compartment. “Stop the train!” Theodore ordered him. “A crime has occurred here and the miscreant left at this very station!”
The guard was an oily sort of man, and said in a lazy tone, “I am sorry to hear that, sir. You can report it at the next stop.”
“No, we must stop now – he will be getting away!”
“And what has this man done to you?”
“To me? Nothing!” Theodore realised he was talking to a cocky and ignorant man. “The two ladies down there have been robbed and the man left at the last station.”
“He’ll be long gone, then. The ladies must get off at the next stop and alert the authorities. They can use the telegraph if there is any need to get word out but I can tell you, sir, that this happens all the time and your alleged thief will be miles away by now. People ought to take better care of their personal possessions. We at the railway company take no responsibility at all for other people’s carelessness. May I see your ticket?”
Theodore didn’t want to show the guard anything, just out of stubbornness. Reluctantly he dug out his ticket and the guard spent far too long examining it before he handed it back. Then, to Theodore’s complete astonishment, he turned around and went back up the carriage to the far end. Clearly he was not even going to check on the welfare of the two ladies.
Theodore went back and found that both of them had been consoled by the attentions of the other passengers who had offered handkerchiefs, smelling salts, mint humbugs and plenty of helpful advice in retrospect. It was not far to the next station. Theodore and Robert disembarked with both ladies, a Miss Hattersley and a Miss Carmichael, and accompanied them to the stationmaster’s office. Theodore called for a police constable to attend, and they were all furnished with tea and biscuits while they waited for someone to arrive and take their statements.
The day was ticking on, of course, and Theodore had already decided they were not going to get to the picture gallery that day.
The constable arrived after a very long hour, and set about talking first to the two ladies in private. Eventually he asked Theodore and Robert to join him in the stationmaster’s office and he listened patiently to their experience and their rather scant description of the man who ran off.
He was more interested in the attitude of the train guard. He nodded as Theodore expressed his anger at how off-hand the man had been.
Theodore said, furiously, “He is a servant of the railway company! Yet he acted as if he didn’t care one bit for the company’s good name, the welfare of the ladies, or that a crime had been committed right under his nose! He seemed to blame the victims themselves.”
The constable nodded. “You do realise he was in on the crime, don’t you, my lord?”
Theodore’s mouth went from a “What?” to an “Ohhh” instantly. It was blindingly obvious, of course. Robert snorted.
“I had thought that possible yet didn’t want to say so in case I looked like a paranoid fool,” Robert said. “Is this common?”
“Exceedingly so,” the policeman said. “Is it not clear to you that the guard wanted to keep people out of that particular compartment? He had identified his mark, his victims, and he would have let his associate know where to find them. He will have benefited handsomely from the information and I am also sure you won’t be able to identify him again.”
“Of course I can,” Theodore said stoutly, as he conjured up a mental image of a man in the usual livery of the railway company, with his peaked cap low on his face, his hair of ... of what colour? It had been impossible to tell. His eyes? Unknown. Height? Medium. Distinguishing features? Theodore realised, with a sinking heart, that “rude” was not a distinguishing feature at all. “No,” he admitted sadly. “I rather fear I cannot.”
“We are fools,” Robert said.
The constable was nice to them, which made it all far worse. “Come now, sirs, you were up against a master criminal. This is their job, you know, and they are jolly good at it. You are not the first to be duped and you shan’t be the last. By heavens, they get up to all manner of things on the railways! Some companies even employ their own police, now, to try to get on top of it, but who is to say that they are free from corruption? Anyone can be bribed.”
Theodore said, “I suppose it’s not just the robbing of passengers, is it? I imagine that goods go missing in the goods vans, for example.”
“Yes, of course. Or things are swapped; parcels, boxes, safes even! Yes, indeed, gold bullion, jewels, all manner of things. Supposedly secret shipments are never really secret and never really safe. One tip off leads to another, leads to an
