But instead of going at once to the house I set out for Braster Junction.
There was a porter there whom I had spoken to once or twice.

I called him on one side.
"Can you tell me," I asked, "what passengers there were from London by the newspaper train this morning ?" "None at all, sir," the man answered readily.
"Are you quite sure ?" I asked.
The man smiled.
"I'm more than sure, sir," the man answered, "because she never stopped.
She only sets down by signal now, and we had the message 'no passengers' from Wells.

She went through here at forty miles an hour." "I was expecting Colonel Ray by that train," I remarked, "the gentleman who lectured on the war, you know, at the Village Hall." The man looked at me curiously.
"Why, he came down last night, same train as you, sir.

I know, because he only got out just as the train was going on, and he stepped into the station master's house to light his pipe." "Thank you," I said, giving the man a shilling.

"I must have just missed him, then." I left the station and walked home.