Here Comes a Chopper by Gladys Mitchell Read Free Book Online Page A

head out. ‘They’re going up and down the train with a lantern. I hope we’re not going to miss our connection through this!’
    He withdrew his head as, apart from the movements of the guard and the fireman with the lanterns, there was nothing to see. In about five minutes, however, the guard came past the window which Roger had left open wide, and asked, but not very hopefully, whether there was a doctor on the train.
    ‘I can do a bit of binding-up, but no diagnosis,’ said Roger. ‘Anything wrong?’
    ‘We don’t quite know, sir. Would you come and have a look at the driver? Had a shock, he has, and his wife expecting tonight. Bad luck he should be on duty, but the influenza’s that bad he couldn’t be spared.’
    ‘Do you mind?’ asked Roger. Dorothy said that she did not mind at all. He opened the door and dropped on to the line—a surprising distance—aided by the light of the lantern. He returned in about ten minutes.
    ‘Fellow appears to have had a shock all right,’ he said, when he resumed his seat beside Dorothy.‘Comfort he doesn’t have to steer, for I don’t think he’s capable of it.’
    ‘What’s the matter with him, then?’
    ‘Oh, his wife’s going to have a baby, and it seems to have got on his nerves.’
    ‘In what way?’
    The train, with a good deal of noise, steamed on again.
    ‘Oh, I don’t know. Signs and wonders, and all that. Anyhow, he’s prepared to carry on. Personally, I shall be glad when we get to our station. I don’t much care to be behind a driver who sees headless corpses where no headless corpses should be.’
    ‘Oh, heavens! Is that what he said?’
    ‘It is. However, we’ve soothed him. Funny thing, though. I smelt his breath. He’s dead sober. Ah, here’s our station! Now I wonder how long we’ve got to wait?’
    The train was already slowing down. The lights of the station came into view. Roger hauled down his rucksack and slung the straps over his arm. He picked up his ashplant, opened the carriage door, got out, and helped Dorothy out. There was an empty seat on the platform under a lamp. He guided her to it, slung down his luggage beside her, and went off to find a porter.
    ‘This platform, but we’ve got an hour and a half to wait,’ he said, with a groan, on his return. ‘We’ve missed the connection. I’m really terribly sorry. Old Bob will have my blood! I say, are you hungry again, as well as sleepy?’
    ‘Good heavens, no! I couldn’t eat a thing! And, anyway, I’m not sleepy now.’
    ‘Do you mind if I smoke?’
    ‘Please do.’
    ‘Cigarette?’
    ‘Thank you.’
    Scarcely had they lighted the cigarettes when the chauffeur Sim came through a side gate on to the platform.
    ‘I thought I might find you here, sir,’ he observed. ‘I’ve got the car outside. I’m very sorry, sir, but I did not have orders to take you further than the station. However, I’ve come now, sir, to drive you home.’
    ‘Well, thanks very much,’ said Roger, getting up. ‘Anything’s better than waiting an hour and a half on this beastly station.’
    Sim seemed to know the route well, and drove very fast through the darkness. He had not even asked for an address. This was all explained when, two hours after they had left it, they found themselves at the mysterious house again.
    ‘Here, what the devil!’ said Roger, as soon as he stepped out of the car.
    ‘I’m very sorry I had to deceive you, sir,’ said the chauffeur. ‘But my orders were at all costs to get you back here.’
    The guests were still at table. Conversation was general, but there was an air of strain about the party. Lady Catherine greeted the arrivals very cordially, and asked them to sit down at once as the party was thirteen at table. Roger, who hadhalted in the doorway with Dorothy just behind him and looking over his shoulder by standing on tip-toe, merely glowered at the party.
    ‘Do you mean to say,’ he said, when, sweetly but peremptorily, she had repeated her