Description
The Vanished Messenger
CHAPTER I
There were very few people upon Platform Number Twenty-one of Liverpool
Street Station at a quarter to nine on the evening of April 2–possibly
because the platform in question is one of the most remote and least
used in the great terminus. The station-master, however, was there
himself, with an inspector in attendance. A dark, thick-set man, wearing
a long travelling ulster and a Homburg hat, and carrying in his hand a
brown leather dressing-case, across which was painted in black letters
the name MR. JOHN P. DUNSTER, was standing a few yards away, smoking
a long cigar, and, to all appearance absorbed in studying the
advertisements which decorated the grimy wall on the other side of
the single track. A couple of porters were seated upon a barrow which
contained one solitary portmanteau. There were no signs of other
passengers, no other luggage. As a matter of fact, according to the
time-table, no train was due to leave the station or to arrive at it, on
this particular platform, for several hours.
Down at the other end of the platform the wooden barrier was thrust
back, and a porter with some luggage upon a barrow made his noisy
approach. He was followed by a tall young man in a grey tweed suit and a
straw hat on which were the colours of a famous cricket club.
The inspector watched them curiously. “Lost his way, I should think,” he
observed.
The station-master nodded. “It looks like the young man who missed the
boat train,” he remarked. “Perhaps he has come to beg a lift.”
Product ID: 9781776790425
Sku: 9781776790425
