14 TUESDAY EVENING AT LAST!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN TUESDAY EVENING AT LAST! THERE WAS a meeting the next morning to talk over everything and to make arrangements for Tuesday. It was a proper November day, and a mist hung everywhere. 'My father says there will be a fog before tomorrow,' announced Peter. 'If so those men are going to be lucky on Tuesday. I don't expect the driver of the engine will even guess his train's on the side-line when the points send him there! He won't be able to see a thing.' 'I wish Tuesday would buck up and come,'

said Jack. 'Susie knows there's something up, and she and her Famous Five are just longing to know what it is! Won't she be wild when she knows that it was her silly trick that put us on to all this?' 'Yes. I guess that will be the end of the Famous Five,' said Colin. 'Hey, Peter, look here. I managed to get hold of a railway map. My father had one. It shows the lines from Petlington, and all the points and everything. Jack, do you think it could have been a map like this that Zeb and Larry and the other man were looking at in Tigger's Barn?' 'Yes. It may have been,' said Jack. 'I bet those men have played this kind of game before. They know the railway so well. Oh, I do wish Tuesday would come!' Tuesday did come at last. Not one of the Secret Seven could do good work at school that day. They kept on and on thinking of the coming night. Peter looked out of the window

a hundred times that morning! Dad was right, he thought. The fog did come down, a real November fog. And tonight it will be so thick that there will be fog-signals on the railways. We shall hear them go off. The four boys had arranged to meet after tea, with Scamper. Peter thought it would be a good thing to take him with them in case anything went wrong. They all had torches. Peter felt to see if he had any sweets in his pocket to share with his friends. He had! Jolly good! He shivered with excitement. He nearly didn't go with the others, because his mother saw him putting his coat on, and was horrified to think that he was going out into the fog. 'You'll get lost,' she said. 'You mustn't go.' 'I'm meeting the others,' said Peter, desperately. 'I must go.' 'I really can't let you,' said his mother. 'Well

–not unless you take Scamper with you. He'll know the way home if you don't!' 'Oh, I'm taking Scamper, of course,' said Peter thankfully, and escaped at once, Scamper at his heels. He met the others at his gate and they set off. The thick fog swirled round them, and their torches could hardly pierce it. Then they heard the bang-bang of the fog-signals on the railway. 'I bet Zeb and the rest are pleased with this fog!' said Colin. 'Look, there's the fence that runs beside the railway. If we keep close to that we can't lose our way.' They arrived at the goods yard about five minutes to six, and went cautiously in at the gates, which were open. All the boys had rubber-soled shoes on, and they carefully switched off their torches as they went quietly into the goods yard. They heard the sound of a lorry's engine

throbbing, and stopped. Voices came to them, low voices, and then they saw a lantern held by someone. 'The gang are here, and the lorry sent by Cheeky Charlie!' whispered Jack. 'You can just see it over there. I bet it's got the name of Hammond or Dalling on it!' 'It was this Tuesday,' said Colin, in relief. 'I did hope we hadn't come all the way here in this fog for nothing.' Bang! Bang-bang! More fog-signals went off and yet more. The boys knew when trains were running over the main-line some distance away because of the sudden explosions of the fog-signals, warning the drivers to look out for the real signals or to go slowly. 'What's the time?' whispered George. 'It's about half-past six now,' whispered back Peter. 'The six–two is late because of the fog. It may be along any time now, or it may

be very late, of course.' BANG! Another fog-signal went off in the next few minutes. The boys wondered if it had gone off under the wheels of the late goods train. It had. The driver put his head out of his train and looked for the signal. It shone green. He could go on. He went on slowly, not knowing he was on the wrong line! Larry was there at the points, well-hidden by the darkness and the fog, and he had switched the goods train carefully on to the little side-line! The goods train left the main-line. It would not go through the station tonight, it would only go into the little goods yard, where silent men awaited it. Larry switched the levers again, so that the next train would go safely on to the main-line. He did not want half a dozen trains on the side-line together! Then he ran down the single-line after the slow-moving train.