by Peter Bunzl
“Precisely,” Malkin said. “Whoever’s instructions she’s obeying, she intends to see them through. She’s not going to do what we say just because we ask her nicely. We need to come up with a better ruse than that!”
“I think the only solution is to try and sneak up on them,” Lily said at last, mainly because she couldn’t think of anything better.
So, they crouched down and as stealthily as they could, opened the sliding door between the two adjacent carriages. Then the four of them slid through one by one and hid behind the nearest row of seats.
Miss Buckle was talking to Dane very loudly and her voice echoed down the length of the empty car. “Are you sitting comfortably?” she asked Dane, his hand tight in her grasp.
“Yes, thank you,” Dane said quietly. He was sat next to Miss Buckle, shivering with distress – too anxious, it seemed, to do anything but agree.
Seat by seat, Lily, Robert, Caddy and Malkin crept closer to the pair of them in the dark, until they were only one row away from where their friend and the mechanical were sat.
They paused there while Lily tried to think what to do next.
She waited, but any idea was a long time coming…
Suddenly Caddy shielded her mouth with a gloved hand.
“I think…” she whispered. “I’m going to…sneez—”
“Stifle it!” Robert whispered urgently.
Caddy did, and it came out in a low cough.
But it made no difference. Miss Buckle had heard.
She stood up and was staring right at them, her face contorted with anger. She picked up her case and dragged Dane from his seat along the last few feet of the rattling carriage, glancing back over her shoulder as she departed.
“What should we do now?” Robert asked, hurriedly.
Lily gritted her teeth. “We don’t really have a choice. We have to follow.”
“Try not to lose her under any circumstances,” Malkin advised. “If you need me to run ahead again, I will.” The hackles on the back of his neck were raised and he stood growling at Lily’s side.
It made Lily feel a little more confident about facing down the mechanical woman if it came to that. She motioned to Robert and Caddy and they set out in pursuit of Miss Buckle as she lugged Dane and the wooden case down the last leg of the swaying carriage.
They were getting closer.
Miss Buckle had more to contend with, pulling Dane and the case along.
The clattering of the train tangled Lily’s nerves. Now that Dane had seen them, she couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t crying out. Perhaps he was scared of the mechanical woman? Had she threatened him to make him keep quiet? He kept glancing over his shoulder at them, his troubled face filled with worry.
“Keep moving, please, Master Milksop,” Miss Buckle told him forcefully. Her loud and urgent words carried down the empty carriage. “We must keep moving.”
“Please don’t…” Dane murmured to her. He spoke so quietly, Lily had to strain to hear him over the clatter of the carriage. “Please let me just…” He said something else, but his voice was drowned out by a blast of the engine releasing excess steam.
Robert held Caddy’s hand in his. His other fist was clenched at his side. Spook scrabbled in his pocket – the mouse must have been reacting to Robert’s nervous heartbeat, which pounded in his chest and stopped him from even thinking straight. He no longer knew if trailing Miss Buckle had been a good idea, but he supposed they had no choice if they wanted to stop the machine getting into the wrong hands and rescue Dane.
Miss Buckle had reached the end of the carriage. She thrust Dane and the case in front of her and tried the door.
It was locked.
She yanked hard on the handle and it came away in her hand. Frustrated, she tossed it along the carriage floor, smashed the glass window and reached through to open the door from the outside.
But there was no escape, only a blank wall of wood in front of her: the doorless snowy side of the goods carriage.
Robert, Lily, Malkin and Caddy pushed past the last row of seats towards her.
Miss Buckle was cornered now, her eyes flashing around wildly.
“Be careful!” Dane hissed worriedly at them. “She might do anything!”
Lily ignored his warning and the fear coursing through her. With Malkin stalking out in front, she and the others stepped closer to Dane and Miss Buckle.
“Dane!” she said, trying to keep her voice from wavering. “Don’t panic, we’re here to help you. Miss Buckle, you must do as I say. You’ve nowhere else to go. I’m a human. Mechanicals always obey humans. Now let him go!”
“And hand over the case!” Robert added, trying to imitate the confidence in Lily’s voice.
Miss Buckle shook her head. “I’m sorry, Miss Hartman, Master Townsend, I’m afraid I can’t do that. I have orders from my master.” Her eyes glowed red and threatening.
Lily shivered with dread.
Robert flinched.
Malkin growled at Miss Buckle.
“Please!” Dane implored, staring at Miss Buckle and then glancing worriedly at Lily and the others. “Don’t hurt them… Don’t do that. They’re my friends…” The words were gabbled and mixed up with anxiety.
At Dane’s begging, Miss Buckle seemed to change her mind.
“All right,” she said. “Come along then, Master Milksop. A slight detour, I’m afraid.” She kicked the door open wider, picked up the case once more and dragged it and Dane through the doorway, pushing them up a ladder that ran up the narrow gap on the outside of the carriage onto the roof of the train.
Lily rushed over and peered after them. Cold snow and wind and smoke and the scream of the steam engine blasted in through the open doorway, tearing at her face. She narrowed her eyes against all of it.
Miss Buckle had Dane grasped under one arm and the case somehow slung across her back. She was climbing one-handed. She reached the roof and dragged Dane and the case up onto it.
KER-SCREEK, KER-SCREEK! screamed the wheels of the train.
Lily swung herself out of the carriage and, balancing one foot on the jiggling buffers, reached for the ladder herself, with her free hand.
“What are you doing?” Robert cried, as he, Caddy and Malkin clustered in the doorway around her.
“Going after them!” Lily shouted back. “We can’t lose sight of her. She has the machine and Dane.”
“Wait!” he cried again. “You’re not going up there alone, are you?”
Lily clung tightly to the first rung of the ladder. “I’m not alone, I’ll have you.” She began to climb upwards, rung by rung, her scarf streaming out behind her, bracing herself with each step against the tug of the ferocious snow-filled wind.
Robert gave a loud sigh. He yanked his binoculars from around his neck and looped them over Caddy’s head. “Take care of these. And of Spook…” He scooped the little mouse from his pocket and handed it over to her too. “I have to go after Lily.”
“Be careful!” Caddy cried tearfully.
“Don’t do anything stupid!” Malkin yapped. “…Or stupider, anyway! And don’t worry about your sister, I’ll look after her!”
“Thanks,” Robert said pulling his cap down tight over his ears.
Here we go again, he thought as he grasped the bottom of the ladder and swung through the broken doorway, climbing behind Lily as quickly and carefully as he could.
A few rungs above him, Lily’s scarf and coat billowed out, like snow-spattered flags. Why did he always end up doing this? Following her into ever more dangerous and life-threatening situations?
Lily reached the top of the ladder. She poked her head up to peer along the frosted roof. Robert joined her, squeezing onto the same rung.
Black smoke from the steam engine streamed over the top of the goods van and billowed past her, strafing across the top of the two carriages they’d just walked through. For a moment it dispersed and Robert saw Miss Buckle, pulling the case and a screaming Dane along
the icy surface, heading back towards the rear of the train.
“Come on,” Lily muttered in his ear. “They’re getting away.”
She climbed onto the roof and pulled him up beside her.
Crouching and clinging to the slippery surface as well as they could, the pair of them followed Dane and Miss Buckle, the other way, down the length of the train.
Robert felt giddy. The train’s shake was more pronounced up here and the smog made it difficult to keep the mechanical and the boy in sight.
Snow and cold wind blasted in Lily’s face and the sooty steam from the locomotive swept around her like a column of fog. Her scarf pulled against her face as the end of it thrashed about behind her.
Robert took a quick peep over the edge of the carriage. The train was speeding high above the city on a metal gangway. Houses swept past as the cars sped southwards. This wasn’t how he had expected to see New York, that’s for sure!
A dizzy swirl of vertigo suddenly shivered through him, threatening to topple him over the edge. He snatched onto Lily’s arm, took a deep breath and tried to steady himself. “Never mind airships and drainpipes,” he shouted. “This is the worst climb we’ve ever taken.”
“We can’t let Miss Buckle get away,” Lily screamed over the clatter of the rails, pointing along the rooftop.
Robert glanced up. The mechanical and Dane were already over halfway down the train. Miss Buckle, with her metallic feet, had crossed over to the roof of the next car, dragging a tearful Dane and the battered wooden case along beside her.
Robert and Lily struggled on after them. Beneath the rim of his cap, snowflakes stuck to Robert’s eyelashes and melted into his eyes. In a blur of terror and snow and ragged crab-like steps they followed Miss Buckle and Dane along the juddering top of the rear carriage. As they neared the end of the car, there was a horrible screeching noise of the steam-brakes and the train ground to a sudden halt.
Robert and Lily tipped over backwards and had to grab onto a rail that ran along the roof’s edge to stop themselves from toppling off altogether.
When Lily looked up again, peering through the smog, Miss Buckle had barely wavered, but Dane seemed to be pleading with her, snot running from his nose and tears streaming down his face.
Miss Buckle cricked her head to one side, as if she was considering what he was saying.
Then suddenly she seemed to make a decision and, ignoring Dane’s pleas, she grasped him tighter to her and jumped from the end of the train.
Lily and Robert clambered to their feet and scuttled and slid along the stilled carriage roof towards the spot where Miss Buckle and Dane had jumped from.
Lily glanced over the edge and saw the mechanical holding Dane in her arms and running along the frozen elevated rails behind the train, back the way they’d come, towards a fork in the track which swung off to the south.
“Quick!” Lily shouted. “We mustn’t let her take him away!”
But she could barely breathe. The pain of the chase cut through her like a knife, and the Cogheart ticked wildly in her chest.
She and Robert clambered down the ladder at the back of the train and dropped onto the track, just as Caddy and Malkin burst through the rear door of the end carriage in a flash of orange and green and grey. Caddy had Robert’s binoculars around her neck and Spook still clasped in her hand. Her face was shot through with dread, but there was a glimmer of determination there too.
“Where did Miss Buckle go?” she cried.
“Down that branch line,” Robert panted, pointing it out, clutching at his chest with his free hand.
Malkin hopped onto the track, and Caddy started to climb down after him.
“Wait!” she said. “Is it safe?”
“I hope so,” Robert said taking her hand. “It’s not electrified and there’ll be no more trains in this weather.”
“Shouldn’t we go find the driver and fireman?” Caddy asked, but just as she said this, the train started up again with a shudder and pulled off, disappearing round the bend, behind a high-rise tenement block, making for the next station.
Now they were truly alone on the tracks.
Lily wound her scarf tight once more and stared off down the line. She could still just about see Miss Buckle with Dane up ahead. The pair of them were lit in flashes by the bright electric lamps that arced over the railway on its raised gantries. They had to follow. There was too much at stake to let the mechanical go. Lily took a deep breath and steeled herself to run on. “Come on,” she shouted at the others. “Let’s get them!”
Somehow, they all found the energy to continue in pursuit of their new friend.
“This is worse than a cross-country run and wild goose chase put together,” Malkin grumbled as they vaulted the wide spaces between the railway sleepers.
Caddy huffed and puffed and Robert clutched at the stitch in his chest. Lily found her shoes slipping with each step, the frosted surface was treacherous enough to turn an ankle. She could see the street far below through the gaps but tried not to think about what would happen if she fell through one of them.
She shot a glance over at Robert. He had a far worse fear of heights than her. Beneath his cap, his face was frozen with anxiety, but he ran alongside her keeping pace, as did the other two.
If they didn’t catch up to Miss Buckle and grab Dane and the machine, then they had no idea what she might do. She had certainly shown no regard for Dane on the train, and Lily remembered the flash of red in her eyes earlier. Worse than that, tomorrow – according to Caddy’s prophecy – Dane was due to wake the dead. The thought was horrifying – they just couldn’t let it happen.
Malkin sniffed at the tracks like a bloodhound, determined to track the scent of the mechanical woman in case they lost sight of her. Lily could see the lights of the Brooklyn Bridge in the distance and Miss Buckle running fast towards it. Still dragging Dane and the case with her, she slowed suddenly at the next curve in the track and looked round.
“We’ve nearly caught them!” Caddy shouted.
But then the mechanical woman soared over the edge of the bridge, carrying Dane and the case in her arms.
They ran to where she had been, but their quarry had disappeared.
“How are we going to ever find out where they’re going now?” Lily cried exasperatedly, the last glimmer of hope inside her guttering away.
“Look,” Caddy said. “Miss Buckle dropped something.” She crouched down and snatched up a piece of paper that was flapping against the edge of the railway track before it could fly away.
Hope soared in Lily at the sight of it. A clue – perhaps their chase had not been in vain?
The three of them crouched down beside Caddy, crowding round the note to see what it said. The writing was so spidery-thin it was almost impossible to read in the darkness.
“Maybe we need your magnifying glass, Lily?” Malkin suggested.
Lily got it out and, shaking with cold, the four of them peered closer at the note.
It was some kind of list.
Items six and seven were indistinguishable. The snow had melted the words away, so that they had become black ink blots. Robert concentrated on points four and five instead, for those were the two things they knew nothing about.
“Warehouse,” Lily said.
“She’s going to a warehouse?” Robert suggested.
“But where-oh-where is it?” Malkin said. “This where-house?”
“And what’s a Diving Belle?” Caddy asked, her teeth chattering.
“Who knows,” Robert said. “We’ll need another clue to throw a little more light on the situation, I reckon.”
Just as he said this, a literal bright light suddenly appeared around the corner and pointed straight at them. It was so glaring it almost blinded them. And it was coming closer at great speed, accompanied by a SCREECH of a train whistle. Puffing fast up the tracks towards them.
Another train!
Lily stuffed the note in her pocket and glanced to the
right. There was a second elevated track running alongside them, just a few feet away, a narrow gap between them.
“We have to get onto that line!” she shouted above the horrible echo of the whistle, pulling Robert and Caddy to their feet. “ALL TOGETHER…”
Malkin had already vaulted the gap before she’d finished speaking. “Come on,” he called to all of them. “Hurry up, slowcoaches!”
Lily took Caddy’s gloved hand and Robert’s and pulled them both to the edge.
“I-I can’t,” Caddy said.
The train was almost on them now, steam billowing around it.
“JUMP!” Lily screamed and they leaped across the rails, stumbling over the sleepers on the other track.
Lily’s heart ticked wildly in her head – or was that the screaming clack of the train wheels as they whooshed past, the screech of whistling wind and the huff of the chimney?
The train had missed them by inches. Lily found herself shakily clinging onto the others as she watched the locomotive disappear into the distance.
“We made it!” Robert said, breaking free from Lily’s grip and hugging her and Caddy to him. Caddy was shivering, clasping Spook protectively in her free hand.
Slowly, Lily brushed the soot and snow from her clothes. A sharp stitch pulsed beneath her ribcage and the cold, which the heat of the chase and the excitement of finding the note had kept at bay, suddenly closed in on her compounding into a wave of tiredness. Caddy’s knee was grazed and jewelled with scarlet pinpricks of blood. Robert was still out of breath. Malkin, as one might expect, was fine – his new green Christmas coat was smeared with coal dust, but he didn’t seem to mind that.
The important thing was they had survived. The night seemed even blacker after the brightness of the train’s lamps, but they couldn’t just give up, not when they’d come so far. They had the note after all: it was a new clue. If only they could work out what it meant.
The four of them hobbled along the tracks, searching for somewhere to descend. Buildings crowded in along the rails up ahead, their distant windows throwing vague ghostly lights, but there were no stations or stairways down to the street.
