It took quite a while for me to bring Bertie back to reality after the stark realisation of what he had done; I must admit that I had hoped that by this part of the journey, as we rattled further and further northwards, I would be lying next to my darling Elspeth. However the delay caused by Bertie’s anguish and remorse did mean that the pair of us were still awake by the time we began to slow and pull into Crewe and whilst we did not have the major diagram we did have Hobbes notes. Thus it was that as the Caledonian Express began to loose speed Bertie and I were poised to test Hobbe’s “Mobile Telegraphic and Telephony Solution”.

As recounted earlier Hobbes “Solution” consisted of a running cables from the “Train” and connecting them from the communications apparatus in the office area to the nearest available telegraphic wires be they overhead or on the ground.

With a window open we could clearly hear the brakes being applied with ever increasing force. Bertie and I peered out into the gloom to see what connectivity options proposed themselves.

Bertie pointed. “Telegraph poles look!”

“Excellent” I shivered as the chilly air swept in,

“Who’s climbing up them then, shall we toss for it?”

“Ah? We actually have to climb up them do we?”

“That would be the normal method, yes” Replied Bertie somewhat relishing in my obvious discomfort.

I was never happy with climbing poles and whilst I had had to shimmy up masts and such in my early Navy days, it was certainly something I did not wish to do if there was a less hazardous alternative available.

Bertie smiled “…there is another option.”

I scowled and closed the window sharply with a crack. “I don’t think Elspeth would look kindly on us using Charlotte as this juncture, do you?”

Bettie visibly reddened in the moonlight that had now broken through the cloud. He peered beyond me to the bedrooms, checking that the noise had not disturbed the ladies.

“That is a future alternative I’ll admit” He coughed “However, Hobbes has kindly provided for such an occasion. He pointed to the ceiling of the carriage.”

I looked up and noticed for the first time above the communications hub a hatch or cupola. “We go up onto the roof?”

“Indeed, and there we will find a pair of telescopic connecting rods which with luck will have enough length to reach out to the adjacent telegraph wires.”

“…and without said luck?”

“Some one climbs the nearest pole….”

There was a series of jarring bumps and the sound of escaping steam.

Bertie smiled. “We seem to have stopped.”

He moved to stand directly beneath the hatch and tapped his foot against a floor panel. The hatch swung down on silent gears and a delicate latticework of a ladder unfolded to hang within easy reach.

“After you then Knolly?”

It was damnable cold on the roof of the carriage, but this was only to be expected in February and being well north of London. I crouched down low, up ahead I could spy movement as the fireman, driver and assorted other “ engineer Johnnies” went about their business of restocking the tender with coal and fighting with what in the light from lamps and the firebox looked like a giant elephant but was obviously the water tower and associated hose. They were all to busy to look in this direction and elsewhere there was little other movement and so I deemed the coast was clear.

I waved to Bertie waiting below and he clambered up though the hatch passing me a lantern as he did so. I noticed he had chosen to wear his cape once more.

“I thought it would be cold …and this is warm.” He said before I had a chance to comment.

I pointed towards the engine and the hustle and bustle that was going on.

Bertie nodded in a knowing way, “I think we should have about half an hour or so before we move off, do you have your watch?”

I sighed and took out my modified pocket regulator dial chronograph and set the “alarm” for a few minutes short of half an hour.

“Alright Bertie….Go!” I whispered rather loudly.

Quick as a wink he moved to a recess set in the curvature of the roof (which I took for the gutter) and set about releasing the clasps around what I assumed were the connecting rods. The wind whistled past me and I hugged my coat tighter, “what other mechanisms and wonders did “The Train” hold that I was not aware of?” I made a mental note to sit down at some point with the encyclopaedic set of guides and instructions that sat in the bookcase below.

Bertie was clearly in his element, a race against the clock, something he always revelled in tough worryingly he never seemed to win.

“Knolly some light here if you please?”

I held the lantern high and pointed it away from the front of the express, just in case anyone should care to glance back this way. Although shielded there was enough light to work from and to make out the near by telegraphy wires.

“A bit closer if you please, come on you won’t fall.”

I gingerly stepped towards Bertie and the edge of the roof, the curved aspect of it did not help and normal footwear was not the best choice – Bertie of course had had the sense and the time to change to something of a more outdoor nature.

With the connecting rods now free he braced one between his legs whilst he attached the secondary length, he then triggered a mechanism. Silently and slowly the pole within his hands began to increase in length and extend upwards and outwards in the direction of the nearby telegraph wires. As it extended away from Bertie fine cables snaked out behind. With my eyes I followed these cables back to their source, the recess the rods had been nestling in. “So” I thought “they were already linked up somewhere within the carriage. Masterful”.

“Knolly we are almost done here, if you leave the lamp with me and make your way back down into the carriage and stand by the telephone you should see a small light come on when the rods are fully engaged and then you can just dial Hobbes number.”

I nearly lost my footing “It’s that simple?”

“Good Lord, Knolly! What did you expect, I know we have been away for some time, but science and mechanics have not stood still during our time in China. Now hurry up and make that call.”

Taking care I made my way back to the hatch and down the short ladder making as little noise as possible, though I’m sure our footfalls on the roof must have been loud to Elspeth and Charlotte, but they had not stirred. I checked my watch, twenty minutes left.

There was now a small green light flashing by the telephone – the connection was live. I hastily dialled Hobbes number and waited for his voice.

“What…..Hello…what!”

“Hobbes, it’s me Knolly…this is truly remarkable.”

“Remarkable, remarkable. Do you know what time it is?”

“Er…. Quite late or perhaps very early, depending on your point of view.”

“I was in bed you know?”

“I’m sure you were, but you did ask us to test some more, and we were up and Crewe provided an ideal opportunity.” I didn’t care to mention that he seemed to have answered after the second ring, so surely had not been asleep.

“Humph!..Crewe you say ….So this is just a social call is it?

“No … listen have you made any further progress with the diary or the staff?”

“Humph!…I’m still cross with Bertie you know?”

“I’m sure you are. I did give him a stern ticking off and so too quite recently has Elspeth.”

A chuckle at the other end of the line showed that this last comment had struck home with the effect I had hoped. I checked my watch once more, plenty of time to get some sense out of the fellow.

“So Hobbes, tell me what progress since we last spoke?”

There was an intake of breath. “Remember what I said about the staff being a key? Hmm…well it is …sort of.”

“Sort of?”

“Yes, all those indentations around the middle, they form an elaborate message in soup.”

“Soup..soup?”

“Yes, my dear fellow, I’m sure ink would do just as well, but I didn’t have any available so I painted the staff with chicken broth I was eating and rolled it across a piece of black paper.”

“My word! What did it say?”

“Alas I have no idea but many of the symbols seem to match some of the script your Uncle collected from the crash site.”

“I don’t remember seeing those…”

“No, you and Elspeth saw blank pages…but it transpires they are actually wax rubbings of symbols similar to ‘soup script’.”

“Can you ascertain the meaning?”

“Possibly, quite possibly, with time. Your birthday gift from Archie seems to be a latter day Rosetta stone, the key to a lost language or perhaps a language not necessarily of this planet.”

“Oh so the drawings …..”

“Hmm ..Yes the sketch by your Uncle would now seem very likely to be of a ‘staff’ or message cylinder which means…”

“Rothwell was not the first visit?”

“Or not the first crash, do you really think other worldly folk would come here on purpose?”

I felt a slight jolt, the sort you feel as a train is getting ready to depart and the buffers take the strain. I put the phone down and checked my watch there were ten minutes to go at least; surely they couldn’t be ready to go.

“Hello Hobbes, I need to check something.”

“Right then, will discuss….”

The line went dead; the little green light had gone out, disconnected. There was another jolt and a squeal from the wheels beneath. We were starting to move.

“BERTIE!!!” I yelled as I flew from my chair to the ladder. The bedroom door flew open and there stood Elspeth in tartan splendour.

“Some people are trying to get some rest you know?”

“Apologies dear, but I need to help Bertie off the roof before we get up to speed.”

She folded her arms and screwed up her face in a scowl. “And I suppose you’ll be wanting some help then?”

I was at a loss how to react to this and I shrugged, she looked behind her and then stood aside

“I’m sure this young lady will be of assistance, she should be asleep, but that cannot be helped with all the noise you’ve been making.”

And there stood Charlotte smiling and seemingly ready for anything. “We… go.. up?” She purred and pointed with an armoured glove.

“Yes, Charlie we go up.”

I shuddered inwardly, what was Bertie going to think?

The Great Knolly Archive

The Shepherd and
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26.10.09 Front Page

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