The Return of the Railway Children

by Lou Kuenzler

  “So why’d you hide him, then?” sneered Len.

  “We were scared of you,” said Edie, quietly. “We were afraid of what you would do to him before the colonel came back.”

  “And rightly so,” said Len, twisting Karl’s arm as the airman sank to the floor in pain. “Jerry scum.”

  “Don’t!” cried Edie. “He saved my life. He helped us save the train too.”

  “A proper hero!” The colonel laughed.

  “Yes!” said Edie, fury rising up inside her. “Karl is a hero. More than you. He stopped the train so no one would get hurt. He saved people’s lives.”

  “English lives,” said Len slowly.

  “Yes.” Edie nodded. “And Gus saved them too, even though his father is German. Think of how many people could have died if that train had crashed.” She could see Len mulling this over. Even Donny was chewing his lip and nodding. She knew she had to talk fast and make the brothers understand who was the real enemy here.

  “We trusted the colonel and so did you,” she said. “He told you to collect all those maps and pictures of the railway. He made you act like spies.”

  “Enough!” The colonel was pointing the pistol right at her now, his back still blocking the door. “There’d be nothing easier than for me to shoot you all. I’d just say Jerry here ran amok. I’d say he grabbed my gun… ”

  “You tricked us,” roared Len, realization flooding his face. He clenched his fists, spluttering in disbelief. “You! The fancy colonel … ”

  He let go of Karl and leapt forward with a bloodcurdling howl.

  “Halt!” The colonel turned his gun on Len, stopping him in his tracks. “As you will know from your Home Guard training, this pistol is a Webley revolver, given to me in the last war. There are six bullets in it,” he said. “That’s one for each of you, I think you’ll find… Two for you and your halfwit brother, three for the children, and I’ll save the last one for Jerry. I’ll say I bravely wrestled the gun back from him at the very end.”

  “I’ll kill you with my bare hands,” said Len. But he didn’t move. His eyes were fixed on the gun trained on his heart.

  Edie’s own heart felt slow and heavy, not fluttering in her chest like when she had been frightened before. This was cold terror, not the heated panic of saving the train. Every second that ticked by seemed like an eternity as the six of them stood frozen, held prisoner by the colonel’s gun. Only Greta was jiggling slightly, still desperate for the loo.

  Edie glanced towards the window looking for an escape route and nearly gasped out loud as she saw Perky coming down the railway siding towards them. He was swinging his arms and looked as if he might be whistling.

  Edie forced herself to tear her eyes away from the window. She couldn’t let the colonel see Perky coming, but she knew she had to act fast. In less than a minute, he would open the door. That split second of surprise would be her only chance to set them all free.

  She breathed deeply and made herself count slowly to ten. Then, at last, she heard the door handle rattle behind the colonel’s back.

  “Ey up!” Perky’s cheerful voice rang out.

  “Run!” hissed Edie, pushing Greta away towards the rear of the carriage. “Get under the bench and hide.” In the same instant, she leapt forward, almost colliding with Gus as they both sprang towards the colonel at the same time.

  “He’s got a gun! Don’t trust him,” she shrieked, warning Perky who was still standing in the doorway, his mouth open wide with surprise.

  “Freeze,” ordered the colonel. Edie glanced over her shoulder and saw Greta still scuttling across the carriage towards her hiding place.

  The colonel swung his gun around. There was a flash of movement. Greta was still running as a shot rang out.

  “No!” yelled Edie. But it wasn’t Greta who fell. Karl leapt forward at the last moment, throwing himself into the line of fire, shielding Greta’s body with his own.

  Edie screamed as she saw him crumple to the ground.

  Perky gasped.

  The colonel raised his gun again.

  “Coward,” gulped Len. “You tried to shoot a little girl.” Even he looked shocked as Greta crouched beside Karl’s body, shaking him as if she was trying to wake him up.

  Gus roared like a wild animal, charging towards the colonel. He grabbed the long leather tube which had held the map and swung it at the gun. The pistol flew from the colonel’s fingers and spun across the floor.

  “Get back!” yelled the colonel. He plunged his hand into his pocket. Perhaps he had another weapon hidden there, Edie thought wildly. She snatched the map from the table and threw it over his head like a sheet. It was only made of paper but it was enough to confuse him for a moment. He fought with flailing arms but she held tight around his middle. “Help me!” she screamed at Perky. “The colonel is a spy!”

  In a second he was beside her. Without asking questions, he pulled a ball of thick brown parcel string from his pocket and began wrapping it round and round the map with the colonel trapped inside.

  “Told you I was good at knots!” He grinned up at Edie as the colonel sank to his knees, trussed up like a post-office parcel. Len was beside them now too and he put his foot on the colonel’s chest, pinning him to the ground.

  Edie glanced over her shoulder and saw Gus gather Greta in his arms. She raced across the carriage to where Donny was leaning over Karl’s body.

  The young German blinked and smiled up at her. “Hello.”

  “You’re alive,” said Edie. “Thank goodness!” She sank down on her knees. But a patch of dark red blood was spreading across his shoulder.

  “Run,” she said, looking up at Donny. “Run for help. Please.”

  “Go,” agreed Len. “You’re the fastest runner.” He stooped down and picked up the pistol from where it lay on the floor. He stood guard over the colonel, who was still parcelled-up in the map and squirming. “Bring the doctor and a policeman, if you can.”

  “Thank you!” said Edie, and Len nodded as Donny sprinted out the door. Then she turned to Perky. “Thank you too,” she beamed. “I can’t even bear to think what might have happened if you hadn’t come along when you did.”

  Perky blushed. “I knew something was up,” he said, looking at Gus and Edie and then towards Karl. “All that talk of signal boxes and whatnot. You were trying so hard to keep me away from here I thought I best come and have a look for myself.”

  “It’s lucky you did,” said Gus as Greta ran forward and flung her arms first around Perky and then around Edie.

  For once she seemed lost for words. Edie stroked her hair. “It’s all right,” she whispered. “You’re safe now.”

  “So,” said Perky. “Is anyone going to tell me exactly what’s going on… ?”

  When help came, the colonel was marched away under military guard.

  “I hope you rot in prison,” spat Len Snigson. “How could you betray your country like this?”

  “There’s nothing left to betray. Britain has gone to the dogs!” snarled the colonel. “It’s full of scum like you and your halfwit brother. Hitler has the right idea. If only we had a strong government like the Nazis, then all the low life in this country would be flushed out. Britain could be great again… Truly great… ” He was still ranting as he was bundled out of the door.

  But Mr Hodges, who had turned up with the Home Guard, snorted loudly. “Nonsense, Colonel. You’re only selling secrets because you owe money from betting on all those fancy card games you play in London. I reckon that’s why you disappeared down there again this week, hoping you could win some of it back again.”

  Edie remembered the empty room she had seen when she peeped through the window at England’s Corner on the day Greta got lost. Perhaps what Mr Hodges was saying was true and the colonel had gambled all his money away.

  “Liar!” he roared as he was heaved into the back of the butcher’s van, kicking and screaming, but still tied up tightly in Perky’s knots.

  Karl, meanw
hile, was carried out on a stretcher and driven away to the same hospital where Aunt Roberta worked.

  The children were desperate for news of their brave airman as soon as Aunt Roberta got home that night. “He’s doing well and he’ll make a good recovery,” she said, after she had hugged each of them in turn and checked they were safe and well after their ordeal too.

  “When Karl’s strong enough, he’ll be moved to a prisoner of war camp,” Uncle Peter explained to them over dinner. “There’ll be other captured German airmen there. He’ll be well looked after and kept safe until the war is over.”

  “Just like our father, I suppose,” sighed Gus.

  It turned out the grown-ups had known the children were half-German all along. They’d found out all those weeks ago when Aunt Roberta went to Maidbridge to arrange having them to stay as evacuees. It seemed their English grandmother had never approved of her daughter marrying a German in the first place. She had been only too pleased to send Gus and Greta away.

  “I saw the mess you’d made of your ration books and guessed you were trying to hide something,” Aunt Roberta said gently.

  “We knew you’d tell us if you wanted to,” said Uncle Peter. “But as to your father staying in a Prisoner-of-War camp, I’ve been doing a little digging… ” He slipped his hand inside his jacket and pulled out one of his famous brown envelopes. “He is not our enemy. He has lived in this country for years and worked for the government, as you know. There were plenty of people who could vouch for his good name. Even the Home Secretary agrees he has no business being in prison.”

  “What are you saying?” said Gus slowly.

  “I am saying,” said Uncle Peter, “that if I were you, I might just go down to the station and meet the evening train.”

  “You mean… ” Gus leapt up so fast, his chair toppled over.

  “I am not saying anything.” Uncle Peter smiled. But Aunt Roberta handed Greta a cardigan.

  “Run along,” she said.

  Edie stood up too, but Uncle Peter put his hand gently on her arm.

  “I think we’d better sit this one out, old girl,” he whispered as the two Smith children tore out of the door. “We might not be wanted just now.”

  “Did you really get Mr Schmidt released?” she asked.

  “Wait and see.” Uncle Peter tapped the side of his nose. “But just remember, if he does come, it is Smith, not Schmidt – he changed his name.”

  Aunt Roberta smiled and Uncle Peter’s good eye sparkled like a boy with a jar of secret sweets.

  “Good job neither of you are spies, like Colonel Crowther,” said Edie. “I don’t think you’d do very well under interrogation.”

  “I have no idea what you are talking about,” said Aunt Roberta innocently. “All I know is that I’d like a nice cup of tea.”

  “Right… ” said Edie. But, when she peeped out of the door half an hour later, she saw Gus and Greta hurrying home across the meadow. They were leading a tall sandy-haired man by the hands.

  “It’s our papa. Our papa!” cried Greta.

  “Pleased to meet you,” said Friedrich Smith with a little bow.

  “Pleased to meet you too,” said Edie. And in that moment, she knew that everything would be different at Three Chimneys from now on.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Beginnings and Ends

  Edie was right.

  After Friedrich Smith’s arrival, things were never quite the same at Three Chimneys again. Greta and Gus were keen to spend time with their father, of course, and so the children no longer ran around together all day with nothing else to do but milk Mr Hitler or feed the Twiglets.

  Aunt Roberta and Uncle Peter invited Friedrich to stay for as long as he needed to. He and Uncle Peter sat up late into the night talking in a mixture of German and English and soon became the very best of friends.

  Perky still called when he had time off from the post office and he really did take Edie and Gus to see the old signal box one afternoon. Greta said she’d rather stay home and build a chicken coop with her papa – she’d had quite enough of being a secret agent for a while.

  “We’ve nobody to spy on now, anyway,” said Edie as the older children all scrambled along the edge of the railway line. “The Snigsons are innocent.”

  “I wouldn’t go so far as that,” said Perky. “I’d bet my breakfast they’re still smuggling black-market sausages and barrels of beer when they get the chance.”

  “Perhaps,” agreed Edie. “But now I’ve seen what so-called respectable men like Colonel Crowther can do, I’m not sure it’s really so terrible.” She knew the Snigsons weren’t good men, but they weren’t bad either – not when it had really mattered.

  “Len says we’re welcome to come down to the station and watch the trains any time we like. He’s even going to arrange for us to have a ride with the driver all the way to Stacklepoole if he can,” said Gus.

  “Can’t say fairer than that.” Perky nodded as if offering a ride on a train could cleanse even the most villainous soul.

  “You boys would have tea with Hitler himself if you thought he’d let you drive an engine,” laughed Edie.

  Gus looked a little hurt, but Perky knew she was joking. “Only if there was cake as well,” he said cheekily. Then he pointed along the line to the disused signal box. “Here she is.”

  The hut was small and cramped inside – and not nearly as good an HQ as the old dining car. But Edie had to admit it was fun to shift the dusty metal arms back and forward, pretending to control the fate of a hundred speeding trains.

  “Here comes the Flying Scotsman,” she bellowed, pulling on a disconnected lever and waving the imaginary locomotive through. “Send our love to the Highlands!”

  It was like old times as they played for an hour or two and then headed back along the line.

  “Did you hear about Colonel Crowther’s house?” said Perky as they ambled home. “He had everyone fooled with his fancy car and neat garden, but he’d gambled so much money away at cards, there was barely a stick of furniture left inside. There was just an old army trunk stuffed full of secret leaflets supporting Hitler. There were pages and pages of the filthy stuff, all about driving out Jewish people and gypsies and only allowing folk who have white skin and were born in Britain to stay here.”

  Edie shuddered. Colonel Crowther had seemed so kind and gentle when they first met him – so honourable – when in fact he was rotten to the core. “Thank goodness he was stopped,” she said. “After all, I think that’s what we’re fighting for, don’t you?” It got lost sometimes in all the moaning about rationing and the hissing about hating their enemies but, in the end, this war had to be about defending a way of life that was decent and tolerant somehow. If not, what was the point in so many men and women risking their lives?

  Her thoughts drifted at once to Fliss, as they had so often since Gus and Greta had got their papa back. She kicked an old fir cone along the edge of the track, hating the feeling that bubbled up inside her. She knew what it was. She was jealous. She hated herself for feeling that way, but she couldn’t help it. She longed more than ever to see Fliss, but there had been no word for weeks.

  Perky headed back towards the village and, as they climbed over the fence into the meadow at Three Chimneys, Gus ran towards the big oak tree where his father was playing leapfrog with Greta.

  “Join us!” called Friedrich, as the little family squealed with laughter.

  “Sorry!” Edie waved and kept running towards the house. “I’ve got something to do,” she called.

  It was a fib, but she didn’t want to be in the way.

  As she bolted through the door, she found Uncle Peter and Aunt Roberta sitting in the kitchen. A man on the wireless was talking about the bombing of a German city by British planes. He might have been reporting a cricket match, he sounded so calm.

  Edie couldn’t bear it. There’d be children there, just like her and Greta or Gus and Perky… She remembered all the terrible things she ha
d seen in London… The silver Cinderella shoe lying in the rubble of the Café de Paris.

  “It’s all such a waste! Such a stupid waste,” she cried, and she ran upstairs and threw herself down on the bed.

  She had only been there a moment, when she heard a quiet knock at the half-open door.

  “Can I come in?” said Aunt Roberta, poking her head into the room.

  “If you like,” said Edie, but she stayed lying face down in her pillow.

  Aunt Roberta gently touched her shoulder then perched opposite her on the edge of Greta’s bed. Neither of them said anything for a while, they just stayed there listening to the sound of the other children outside with Friedrich.

  Uncle Peter had joined them in the meadow and there seemed to be some sort of game of rounders or French cricket going on. Edie could hear the twang of an old tennis racket as it hit the ball.

  “We could go down if you like?” said Aunt Roberta.

  “Not yet.” Edie shook her head. As she rolled over she was surprised to see Aunt Roberta had kicked off her shoes and was now lying stretched out on Greta’s little white bed.

  “This used to be my side of the room,” she said, staring up at the ceiling above her. “I always liked to be in the bed next to the wall, because it made me feel safe and cosy. But Phyllis had the one you’re in. She liked to be nearest the window, so she could see the sky.”

  “Really?” Edie sat up and hugged her knees. She liked the thought that Aunt Roberta and Fliss had shared this same little bedroom all those years ago. “Perhaps Fliss was dreaming of flying,” she whispered. “Even then.”

  “Perhaps.” Aunt Roberta laughed. “But mostly she was always complaining about how hungry she was and how cold … and how many scabs she had on her knees from tripping up!”

  “I wish you hadn’t fallen out with each other,” said Edie, blurting it out just like that. But she realized she’d been wanting to say it since the moment she had first arrived at Three Chimneys. “Was it really so terrible that Fliss had a baby… Even if she wasn’t married? Was it really so bad that she wanted to keep me?”