Mystery on the Train (2 page)

“Exactly,” Aunt Jane said.

Suddenly the children heard a loud voice shouting, “You can’t have it!”

They turned and saw a young woman with bright red hair. A taller, older woman was pulling at something large and black that the girl was holding. They were pulling very hard in opposite directions.

The older woman said, “Let go! I will
not
permit you to take them.”

“They’re mine!” the younger red-haired woman answered in a very loud voice.

Just then, the conductor called, “All aboard. All aboard.”

“I wonder what they’re fighting over?” Violet asked.

Jessie said, “They sound really angry. It looks like they’re fighting over that suitcase.”

“It’s not a suitcase,” Violet said. “It’s an artist’s portfolio. It’s built especially so artists can carry big drawings and paintings.”

“Do you think the young woman is the artist?” Jessie asked.

“Maybe she’s trying to take the older woman’s paintings?” Henry suggested.

Benny turned to Aunt Jane and said, “See, we aren’t even on the train and we’ve found a mystery.”

“But we must get on the train now,” Aunt Jane said. “The conductor has called twice.”

“Look!” Henry said. Just then the younger woman gave the portfolio a big tug. She pulled so hard that the older woman fell down. The younger woman looked frightened and started to walk toward the older one. Then she seemed to change her mind. She quickly grabbed her suitcase and the portfolio and jumped onto the train.

Henry ran over to the older woman and helped her up on her feet. He asked, “Are you all right?”

“Yes, of course,” the older woman said. “I just lost my balance.”

“Are you sure you’re not hurt?” Henry asked. “Do you want us to call the conductor or someone?”

“I’m fine,” the older woman said sharply.

“Did that girl take your portfolio?” Henry asked.

“No!” The older woman shook her head. “It was her portfolio. And I don’t need any help!” She turned her back on Henry and walked quickly away.

When Henry returned to his family, he said, “She’s all right. She says the portfolio belongs to the girl.”

“It was nice of you to help,” Aunt Jane said. “But we
must
get on the train now.”

“The red-headed girl won the tug of war,” Jessie said thoughtfully. “I hope the portfolio really is hers.”

The Aldens boarded the train and the conductor directed them to their sleeping car. The girls were in room 102 and the boys were across the hall in room 105. Benny opened the door and said, “Wow! This really
is
a small room! Where do we put our suitcases?”

Then he saw a doorknob beside the sink and opened it. “This is a closet,” he said. “We can put our suitcases in here.” They stowed their suitcases in the little closet and tried out the sink.

Then Benny went across the hall to visit his sisters. The girls were looking out the window at the platform. Jessie pointed. “The woman who fell down is still standing on the platform.”

“What’s she doing?” Benny asked. He looked out the window. Then he answered his own question. “She’s talking to one of the conductors.”

Henry joined them. He couldn’t quite fit into the compartment, but he stood in the corridor and scrunched down so he could see out the window. “He’s a porter,” Henry said. “The conductor is the one who says when to get on and off the train. The porters carry bags and help you.”

“She’s giving him money,” Jessie reported to the others. “It looks like a lot of money.”

“Maybe she’s buying a ticket,” Violet suggested.

“No,” Jessie said. “She can only buy a ticket at the ticket booth.”

The children watched as the porter boarded the train and the older woman stood alone on the platform.

“Why would she give the porter money when she’s not even getting on the train?” Violet wondered.

“She looks sad,” Jessie said. “I wonder what the argument was all about.”

“When I offered to call for help, she looked sort of strange,” Henry said.

I wonder why they were fighting over the port . . . port . . . ” Benny couldn’t say the new word.

“Portfolio,” Violet said. “The red-headed girl looked young. Maybe she’s an art student.”

“Maybe,” Henry said. “But let’s not waste our time talking about that. Let’s explore the train.”

“Good idea,” Benny agreed.

“We can all take a look around,” Violet agreed. “Maybe we’ll meet the art student somewhere.”

“Maybe in the snack bar,” Benny suggested.

The Alden children went out into the corridor and found Aunt Jane’s compartment. “We’re going to explore,” Benny said. “Do you want to come along?”

Aunt Jane shook her head and said, “You children can look around while I read. But be sure to save some room for dinner.”

“Don’t worry, I would never miss dinner,” Benny promised her.

A
s the Aldens explored the train, they found out it was very long. The children counted twenty cars. On one end were the sleeping cars and on the other there were many coach cars with big, comfortable seats. The porters were handing out pillows. “A lot of people sleep all night sitting up in the seats,” Jessie said. “We’re lucky we have beds.”

“I’ll bet those big seats are pretty comfortable,” Benny said. “But I like our slumbercoaches.”

They loved walking from car to car and feeling the way the floor rolled beneath them. Benny said, “It’s a little like sailing, isn’t it?”

“Not really,” Henry said thoughtfully. “It’s more like flying in an airplane, I think.”

“I think it’s exactly like riding in a train,” Jessie said, laughing.

They walked all the way to the end of the train and turned around. On their way back, they stopped to look at the club car. The club car had tables and chairs and, at one end, there was a snack bar where a woman was selling drinks and snacks. “Let’s sit here,” Henry said. He pointed to an empty table with four chairs.

“I think I’ll have a snack,” Benny said.

“Just get a drink for now,” Jessie said. “It’s almost time for dinner.”

Benny smiled at the thought of dinner and looked out the window of the club car. He said, “I know we’re moving and the trees are standing still. But when I look out the window, it seems as if the trees are running away.”

Benny got a drink and they sat and watched the people parade through the train. The train was filled with people of many ages and some were quite dressed up. Others wore jeans and T-shirts or sweaters. There were four women who were playing cards at a table next to them. Other people were talking or reading. Some stared out the window at the darkening sky. Everyone looked very relaxed.

A woman in uniform came through ringing a bell and singing out, “First call for dinner.”

“We’d better go,” Henry said. “Aunt Jane is waiting for us.”

“I wonder what dinner will be like,” Jessie said.

“Let’s get Aunt Jane and go and see,” Benny said.

When they returned, Aunt Jane was sitting in her little compartment reading. She asked, “Well, did you see everything?”

“Not everything,” Jessie admitted. “It is a very long train.”

“We saw a lot,” Benny added. “We saw the coach cars and the snack bar in the club car.” Then he added, “Is it time for dinner yet? I’m hungry.”

Aunt Jane laughed and said, “I suppose we can go to the early seating. Then you might want to watch the sunset from the dome coach.”

“Where is the dome coach?” Henry asked. “We missed that.”

“The dome coach is the only two-story car on this train,” Aunt Jane explained. “We have to climb some stairs and then there’s a coach that has a glass roof. We can watch the sunset and the stars.”

“That sounds great!” Violet said.

The dining car was almost full when they got there. Henry said, “The tables only hold four people. We’ll have to split up.”

“That will be fun,” Jessie said. “We can meet new people.”

Violet and Aunt Jane sat with a young couple. Benny, Jessie, and Henry were joined by a man who was all alone. He was a slender, dark-haired man with a dark beard. He was wearing sunglasses.

“Is this your first train trip?” Benny asked the man.

He nodded his head but said nothing.

Benny thought he had better not ask any more questions, since the man didn’t seem to want to answer.

There were menus on the table and Benny looked his over carefully. When the waiter came by to fill his water glass, he said, “I’ll have a hamburger, please.”

“You must write out your order,” the waiter explained. He showed Benny the order pad and pencil. “First, circle your drink choice,” the waiter said.

Benny circled milk and then he wrote down the word “hamburger.” He handed his order to the waiter and said, “I’ve never had to write down an order before.”

“Trains always ask you to write down your choices,” the waiter explained, smiling. “It saves a lot of trouble.”

“It’s a good idea,” Benny said.

The others all wrote down spaghetti with meatballs. Then Benny said, “I bet they have you write everything down because of the noise.”

“It is noisy,” Henry agreed.

“I like the sound,” Jessie said. “It sounds like the wheels are singing.”

Very soon, the waiter came back with their orders and Henry, Jessie, and Benny started eating their dinners. When they were about halfway through, the man at their table stood up and nodded, then left.

“He didn’t eat much,” Jessie observed.

“I think he was having trouble with his beard,” Henry said. “He seemed to let it get in his way when he tried to chew.”

“Maybe it was a new beard,” Jessie said.

“It takes a while to grow a beard that long,” Henry said. “I don’t think it could be too new.”

“Why do you think he was wearing sunglasses?” Benny asked.

“Maybe he’s a famous movie star and doesn’t want to be recognized,” Jessie said.

When dinner was over, Violet came over to their table and sat down at the empty place. She said, “That was fun. Now we have two new friends. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were married last week and they’re going to visit her mother in Madison, Wisconsin. They were very nice. What was the man who sat with you like?”

“We don’t know. He didn’t say a word,” Henry said.

Jessie added, “I had a hard time not laughing. His beard kept getting into his soup.”

“That’s probably why he was so quiet,” Benny said. “I’m glad I don’t have a beard to get in my way when I eat dinner.”

“He
was
sort of strange,” Henry said.

“I wonder what happened to that art student,” Violet said. “Do you think we’ll see her again?”

“Probably,” Jessie said.

“Maybe not,” Henry said. “It’s a big train.”

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” Violet added. “Let’s go find the dome coach and watch the sunset.”

The four children made their way through the cars until they came to the dome coach. They climbed the stairs to the second story and looked around. There were many chairs and two sofas arranged so that they looked out of the big open windows.

The chairs on the side of the sunset were all filled so the children stood as they watched a big red sun sink below the city buildings. “I wonder where we are,” Henry said. “I have a map but I’m not sure if we are still in Massachusetts or New York state. I’ll ask the conductor.”

“I don’t know where we are now,” Jessie answered. “But Aunt Jane says when we wake up in the morning we’ll be in Indiana.”

The sun was almost completely gone. There was just a small red stripe behind the trees they were passing. Benny said, “I’m sleepy. Is it time to go to bed yet?”

“Not quite,” Henry answered. “Are you really sleepy or do you just want to see how our room turns into a bedroom?”

Benny smiled and said, “I think it will be fun to sleep on the top bunk. Can tonight be my turn?”

“Sure,” Henry answered, “but it is too early to go to sleep. Want to walk around some more?”

“Let’s stay here,” Violet said quickly. Then she whispered, “That red-haired art student is over there. I’d really like to talk to her.”

They all looked in the direction Violet pointed. The young woman they’d seen on the platform was sitting in a chair at the end of the observation car. Henry said, “She
is
drawing. Maybe she really is an art student.”

“I guessed right,” Violet said. “Does she have her portfolio with her?”

“No. Just a sketch pad.”

“I’m going to talk with her,” Violet said. Violet went over and sat down in the empty chair beside the red-haired young woman. She didn’t seem to notice Violet and kept right on working on her drawing.

Violet sat for a while and then she said quietly, “I’m Violet Alden. I’m an artist, too.”

The young woman looked up and smiled. She said, “I’m Annie Perkins. I’m not really an artist but sketching is my hobby.”

“Were you sketching the sunset?” Violet asked.

“No.” Annie shook her head. “It is too difficult to draw landscapes from a moving train. Besides, I like to sketch people. I was sketching that woman over there.” Annie nodded her head slightly.

“May I see?” Violet asked.

Annie passed the sketchbook over to Violet. Violet looked at the drawing and then at the woman. “It’s great, it looks just like her.”

“That’s because she’s got a long nose,” Annie said. “It’s easy if people have at least one unusual feature.”

Violet and Annie began to talk about drawing. “I like to draw noses,” Annie said. “I usually get them right. The hardest parts of people are their chins,” Annie said.

“Yes,” Violet agreed. “Noses are easy. But my favorite thing to draw is ears. I’m very good on ears.”

“Are those your brothers and sister over there?” Annie asked.