Page:The Viaduct Murder (1926).pdf/158

ford. A quarter to twelve, did you say? I think we ought to do it. But if we don't sight him first, it's a bad lookout. What's that on ahead?"

"That's not the one, sir. Ah, there's the goods sidings; express isn't signalled yet."

Weighford is a straggling, unpleasant town, which seems to cast a blight on the road as it passes through, and they were mercilessly bumped. More than once, too, they had to slow down; and finally, to crown their disappointment, they saw the gates of a level-crossing shut against them. Then, just as Reeves was slowing down, the gates began to swing open, and the sergeant suddenly crowed with delight. "That's him, sir! Got held up at the level crossing, and now he's only half a minute's start of us."

The remainder of the race was a thing only to be remembered in nightmares⁠—the children that only just got out of the way in time, the dog that didn't; the lorry that wanted to turn in the middle of the road. . . . But they had their man marked now, and could see that he was making for the railway; could hear, too, the whistle of the express and the grinding of the brakes as it slowed down into the station. At the further platform a quiet, rural train with the label Binver was sitting on its haunches and panting after the exhaustion of its last five-mile crawl. The stationmaster was fortunately found, and the progress of the express held up in the interests of a police search. The fugitive had left the side-car standing at the entrance and lost