Mr Sharp had several peculiarities, which, at first sight, might have
puzzled a stranger. He was peculiar in his choice of routes by which to
reach a given spot appearing frequently to prefer devious, difficult,
and unfrequented paths to straight and easy roads. In the time of his
visits to various places, too, he was peculiarly irregular, and seemed
rather to enjoy taking people by surprise.
On the present occasion his chief peculiarity appeared to be a desire to
approach the station by a round-about road. In carrying out his plans
he went round the corner of a house, from which point of view he
observed a goods train standing near a goods-shed with an engine
attached. In order to reach it he had the choice of two routes. One of
these was through a little wicket-gate, near to which a night-watchman
was stationed--for the shades of evening were by that time descending on
the scene, the other was through a back yard, round by a narrow lane and
over a paling, which it required more than an average measure of
strength and agility to leap. Mr Sharp chose the latter route. What
were palings and narrow lanes and insecure footing in deepening gloom to
him! Why, he rejoiced in such conditions! He didn't like easy work.
He abhorred a bed of roses--not that he had ever tried one, although it
is probable that he had often enjoyed a couch of grass, straw, or
nettles. Rugged circumstances were his glory. It was as needful for
him to encounter such--in his winnowing processes--as it is for the
harrow to encounter stones in preparing the cultivated field. Moving
quietly but swiftly round by the route before mentioned Mr Sharp came
suddenly on the night-watchman.
"Good-evening, Jim."
"Evenin', sir."
"Keep your eyes open to-night, Jim. We _must_ find out who it is that
has taken such a fancy to apples of late."
"I will, sir; I'll keep a sharp look-out."
It was Jim's duty to watch that locality of the line, where large
quantities of goods of all descriptions were unavoidably left to wait
for a few hours on sidings. Such watchmen are numerous on all lines;
and very necessary, as well as valuable, men most of them are--fellows
who hold the idea of going to rest at regular hours in quiet contempt;
men who sleep at any time of the night or day that chances to be most
convenient, and who think no more of a hand-to-hand scuffle with a big
thief or a burglar than they do of eating supper. Nevertheless, like
every other class of men in this wicked world, there are black sheep
amongst them too.
"Is that train going up to the station just now, Jim?" asked Mr Sharp,
pointing to the engine, whose gentle simmering told of latent energy
ready for immediate use.
"I believe so, sir."
"I'll go up with her. Good-night."
Mr Sharp crossed the line, and going towards the engine found that the
driver and fireman were not upon it. He knew, however, that they could
not be far off--probably looking after something connected with their
train--and that they would be back immediately; he climbed up to the
foot-plate and sat down on the rail. He there became reflective, and
recalled, with some degree of amusement as well as satisfaction, some of
the more recent incidents of his vocation. He smiled as he remembered
how, not very far from where he sat, he had on a cloudy evening got into
a horse-box, and boring a hole in it with a gimlet, applied his eye
thereto,--his satellite David Blunt doing the same in another end of the
same horse-box, and how, having thus obtained a clear view of a truck in
which several casks of wine were placed, he beheld one of the servants
on the line in company with one of his friends who was _not_ a servant
on the line, coolly bore a hole in one of the wine casks and insert a
straw, and, by that means, obtain a prolonged and evidently satisfactory
draught--which accounted at once for the fact that wine had been leaking
in that locality for some time past, and that the said servant had been
seen more than once in a condition that was deemed suspicious.
Mr Sharp also reflected complacently--and he had time to reflect, for
the driver and fireman were rather long of coming--on another case in
which the thieves were so wary that for a long time he could make
nothing of them, although their depredations were confined to a train
that passed along the line at a certain hour, but at last were caught in
consequence of his hitting on a plan of having a van specially prepared
for himself. He smiled again--almost laughed when he thought of this
van--how it was regularly locked and labelled on a quiet siding; how a
plank was loosened in the bottom of it, by which means he got into it,
and was then shunted out, and attached to the train, so that neither
guard, nor driver, nor fireman, had any idea of what was inside; how he
thereafter bored several small gimlet holes in the various sides of the
van and kept a sharp look-out from station to station as they went
along; how at last he came to the particular place--not a station, but a
place where a short pause was made--where the wary thieves were; how he
saw them--two stout fellows--approach in the gloom of evening and begin
their wicked work of cutting tarpaulings and abstracting goods; how he
thereupon lifted his plank and dropped out on the line, and how he
powerfully astonished them by laying his hands on their collars and
taking them both in the very act!
At last Mr Sharp's entertaining reflections were interrupted by the
approach of the driver of the engine, who carried a top-coat over his
left arm.
As he drew near and observed who stood upon his engine, the man gave an
involuntary and scarcely perceptible start.
There must have been something peculiarly savage and ungenerous in the
breast of Mr Sharp, one would have thought, to induce him to suspect a
man whose character was blameless. But he did suspect that man on the
faith of that almost imperceptible touch of discomposure, and his
suspicion did not dissipate although the man came boldly and
respectfully forward.
"Ho-ho!" thought Mr Sharp, "there is more chaff here to be winnowed
than I had bargained for." His only remark, however, was--
"Good-evening; I suppose you start for the station in a few minutes?"
"Yes, sir," said the man, moving towards the rear of the tender.
"You'd better get up at once, then," said Mr Sharp, descending
quickly--"what have you got there, my good man?"
"My top-coat sir," said the driver, with a confused look.
"Ah, let us see--eh! what's all this? A salmon! a brace of grouse! and
a pair of rabbits! Well, you seem to have provided a good supper for
to-night. There don't appear to be very stringent game-laws where you
come from!"
The man was so taken aback that he could not reply. As the fireman came
out of the neighbouring goods-shed at that moment, Mr Sharp ordered the
driver to mount to his place, and then waiting beside the engine
received the fireman with an amiable "Good-night."
This man also had a top-coat over his arm, betrayed the same uneasiness
on observing Mr Sharp, went though precisely the same examination, and
was found to have made an identically similar provision for his supper.
Almost immediately after him the guard issued from the shed, also
burdened with a top-coat! Mr Sharp muttered something about, "birds of
a feather," and was about to advance to meet the guard when that
individual's eyes fell on him. He turned back at once, not in a hurry,
but quietly as though he had forgotten something. The superintendent
sprang through the open door, but was too late. The guard had managed
to drop his booty. Thereupon Mr Sharp returned to the engine, ordered
the steam to be turned on, and the driver drove himself and his friends
to the station and to condign punishment.
Having disposed of this little incidental case, Mr Sharp--after hearing
and commenting upon several matters related to him by the members of his
corps, and having ordered David Blunt to await him in the office as he
had a job for him that night,--returned towards the locality which he
had so recently quitted. In doing this he took advantage of another
goods train, from which he dropped at a certain hole-and-corner spot,
while it was slowly passing the goods-shed before mentioned. From this
spot he took an observation and saw the pipe of Jim, the night-watchman,
glowing in the dark distance like a star of the first magnitude.
"Ha!" thought Mr Sharp, "smoking! You'll have to clear your eyes of
smoke if you hope to catch thieves to-night, my fine fellow; but I shall
try to render you some able assistance."
So thinking, he moved quietly about among the vans and trucks, stooping
and climbing as occasion required, and doing it all so noiselessly that,
had the night permitted him to be visible at all, he might have been
mistaken for a stout shadow or a ghost. He went about somewhat like a
retriever snuffing the air for game. At last he reached a truck, not
very far from the place where Jim paced slowly to and fro, watching, no
doubt, for thieves. Little did he think how near he was to a thief at
that moment!
The truck beside which Mr Sharp stood sent forth a delicious odour of
American apples. The superintendent of police smelt them. Worse than
that--he undid a corner of the thick covering of the track, raised it
and smelt again--he put in a hand. Evidently his powers of resistance
to temptation were small, for both hands went in--he stooped his head,
and then, slowly but surely, his whole body went in under the cover and
disappeared. Infatuated superintendent! While he lay there gorging
himself, no doubt with the dainty fruit, _honest_ Jim paced slowly to
and fro until, a very dark and quiet hour of the night having arrived,
he deemed it time to act, put out his pipe, and moved with stealthy
tread towards the apple-truck. There were no thieves about as far as he
could see. He was placed there for the express purpose of catching
thieves. Ridiculous waste of time and energy--he would _make_ a thief!
He would become one; he would detect and catch himself; repay himself
with apples for his trouble, and enjoy himself consumedly! Noble idea!
No sooner thought than carried into effect. He drew out a large
clasp-knife, which opened and locked with a click, and cut a tremendous
slash about two feet long in the cover of the truck--passing, in so
doing, within an inch of the demoralised superintendent's nose.
Thieves, you see, are not particular, unless, indeed, we may regard them
as particularly indifferent to the injuries they inflict on their
fellow-men--but, what did we say? their fellow-men?--a railway is not a
fellow-man. Surely Jim's sin in robbing a railway must be regarded as a
venial one. _Honest_ men do that every day and appear to think nothing
of it! Nobody appears to think anything of it. A railway would seem to
be the one great unpardonable outlaw of the land, which does good to
nobody, and is deemed fair game by everybody who can catch it--napping.
But it is not easily caught napping. Neither was Mr Superintendent
Sharp.
Jim's hand came through the hole in the covering and entered some sort
of receptacle, which must have been broken open by somebody, for the
hand was quickly withdrawn with three apples in it. Again it entered.
Mr Sharp might have kissed it easily, but he was a man of considerable
self-restraint--at least when others were concerned. He thought it
advisable that there should be some of the stolen goods found in Jim's
pockets! He did not touch the hand, therefore, while it was drawn back
with other three apples in it. You see it was a large hand, and could
hold three at a time. A third time it entered and grasped more of the
forbidden fruit.
"There's luck in odd numbers," thought Mr Sharp, as he seized the wrist
with both of his iron hands, and held it fast.
The appalling yell which Jim uttered was due more to superstitious dread
than physical fear, for, on discovering that the voice which accompanied
the grip was that of Mr Sharp, he struggled powerfully to get free.
After the first violent effort was over, Mr Sharp suddenly slid one
hand along Jim's arm, caught him by the collar, and, launching himself
through the hole which had been cut so conveniently large, plunged into
Jim's bosom and crushed him to the earth.
This was quite sufficient for Jim, who got up meekly when permitted, and
pleaded for mercy. Mr Sharp told him that mercy was a commodity in
which he did not deal, that it was the special perquisite of judges,
from whom he might steal it if they would not give or sell it to him,
and, bidding him come along quietly, led him to the station, and locked
him up for the night.
Not satisfied with what he had already accomplished, Mr Sharp then
returned to his office, where he found the faithful Blunt awaiting him,
to whom he related briefly what he had done.
"Now," said he, in conclusion, "if we can only manage to clear up that
case of the beer-cask, we shall have done a good stroke of business
to-day. Have you found out anything in regard to it?"
The case to which Mr Sharp referred was that of a cask of beer which
had been stolen from the line at a station not three miles distant from
Clatterby.
"Yes, sir," said David Blunt with a satisfied smile, "I have found out
enough to lead to the detection of the thief."
"Indeed, who d'ye think it is?"
"One of the men at the station, sir. There have been two about it but
the other is a stranger. You see, sir," continued Blunt, with an
earnest look, and in a business tone of voice, "when you sent me down to
investigate the case I went d'rect to the station-master there and heard
all he had to say about it--which wasn't much;--then off I goes to where
the truck was standin', from which the cask had bin taken and pottered
about there for some time. At last I tried on the Red Indian dodge--
followed up tracks and signs, till at last I came upon a mark as if
somethin' had bin rolled along the bank, and soon traced it to a gap
broken through a hedge into a field. I followed it up in the field, and
in a short time came on the cask itself. Of course I made a careful
examination of the locality, and found very distinct foot-prints,
particularly one of 'em on a piece of clay as sharp as if it had been
struck in wax. While thus engaged I found a shoe--"
"Ha!" exclaimed Mr Sharp.
"And here it is," said Blunt taking the shoe from under his chair and
laying it on the table.
The superintendent took it up, examined it and then replaced it on the
table with a nod, saying, "Proceed."
"Well, sir, of course I looked well for the other shoe, but didn't find
it; so I came away with what I had got, takin' care to place a lump of a
stone over the foot-print in the clay, so as to guard but not touch
it,--for it wasn't the print of _this_ shoe, sir, though somewhat like
it."
"Ha!" exclaimed Mr Sharp again.
After revolving the matter in his mind for some minutes, and consulting
with his satellite, Mr Sharp resolved to go down at once to the place
and watch the beer-cask.
"It is not very late yet," he said, "and these thirsty boys will be sure
to want a drop of beer to their supper to-night. What makes you so sure
that Bill Jones is the thief?"
"Because," answered Blunt, "I observed that he was the only man at the
station that had on a pair of new shoes!"
"Well, come along," said Sharp, smiling grimly, "we shall find out
before long."
They soon reached the scene of the robbery, and were able to examine the
place by the light of the moon, which had just managed to pierce the
thick veil of clouds that had covered it during the earlier part of that
night. Then they retired to a shady cavern, or hole, or hollow at the
foot of the embankment, near to the gap in the hedge, and there they
prepared to pass the night, with a heap of mingled clods and stones for
their couch, and an overhanging bank of nettles for their canopy.
It was a long weary watch that began. There these patient men sat, hour
after hour, gazing at the moon and stars till they almost fell asleep,
and then entering into animated, though softly uttered, conversation
until they roused themselves up. It was strange converse too, about
struggles and fights with criminals and the detection of crime. But it
was not _all_ on such subjects. No, they forsook the professional path
occasionally and strayed, as pleasantly as other men do, into the
flowery lanes of social life--talking of friends, and wives, and
children, and home, with as much pathos and tenderness as if their
errand that night had been to succour some comrade in distress, instead
of to watch like wolves, and pounce on unawares, and half throttle if
need be, and bear off to punishment, an erring fellow-mortal.
But no fellow-mortal came that night to be thus pounced on, throttled,
and borne off. When it became obvious that there was no use in
remaining longer, Mr Sharp and his satellite returned to the office,
and the former bade the latter go home for the night.
The satellite, thus set free, went home and set immediately--in his bed.
The luminary himself postponed his setting for a time, put the thief's
shoe in his pocket and went straight to the residence of Bill Jones,
which he reached shortly after the grey dawn had appeared. Here he
found Bill in bed; but being peremptory in his demand for admission,
Bill arose and let him in.
"You look rather pale this morning, Bill?"
"Bin at work late, sir," said Bill uneasily, observing that the
superintendent was casting an earnest glance all round his room.
Jones was a bachelor, so there wasn't much of any kind to look at in the
room.
"You've been treating yourself to a new pair of shoes, I see, Jones,
what have you done with the old ones?"
"I--they're worn-out, sir--I--"
"Yes, I see--ah! here is _one_ of them," said Mr Sharp, drawing an old
shoe out of a corner; "you don't require to look for the other, I've got
it here," he added, drawing its fellow from his pocket.
Jones stood aghast.
"Look here, Jones," said Mr Sharp, gazing sternly into the culprit's
face, "you needn't trouble yourself to deny the theft. I haven't yet
looked at the sole of _this_ shoe, but I'll engage to tell how many
tackets are in it. We have discovered a little lump of clay down near
the station, with a perfect impression of a sole having fifteen tackets
therein,--three being wanting on the right, side, two on the left, and
one at the toe--now, let us see," he said, turning it up, "am I not a
good prophet eh?"
Bill gave in at once! He not only made "a clean breast of it," but also
gave information that led to the capture of his accomplice before that
day's sun went down, and before Mr Sharp allowed himself to go to bed.
Thus did our superintendent winnow the chaff from the wheat continually.
Now, dear reader, do not say, "From all this it would appear that
railway servants must be a bad lot of men!" It would be a thousand
pities to fail into such an error, when we are labouring to prove to you
the very reverse, namely, that the bad ones being continually and well
"looked after," none but the good are left. Our aim necessarily
involves that we should dilate much on evil, so that the evil
unavoidably bulks large in your eyes; but if we were capable of laying
before you all the good that is done, felt and said by the thousands of
our true-hearted men-of-the-line, the evil that is mingled with them
would shrink into comparative insignificance.
The truth is, that in writing these details we desire to reassure
ourself, as well as to comfort you, O timid railway traveller, by
asserting and illustrating the unquestionable fact, that if our dangers
on the line are numerous and great, our safeguards at all points are far
more numerous and much greater.