Thinking on his feet, Tommy slammed his foot down upon the man’s toe as hard as he could. The businessman gave out a loud moan but remained holding fast to the boy.
Tommy was about to give up until Duncan desperately tried to run through the couple to evade the policemen. Tommy wriggled out of his coat to free himself from the distracted man’s clutch. It was the stroke of luck he had needed to make his daring break, leaving the nosey couple to capture Duncan instead.
Tommy crouched down and crawled through a row of legs to get behind the crowd.
When he finally broke through to stand up, he saw one policeman pulling at Duncan’s ear and leading him off the platform while George followed behind in handcuffs, escorted by another policeman.
“That’s four of them, Sir. We caught two more culprits pocketing wallets at the station’s entrance. Must be the Gatesville boys,” one policeman called out to his superior. Tommy silently backed away from the crowd.
“Time to go,” Peter whispered, appearing with Benjamin behind the boy as if by magic.
“What about George?” Benjamin muttered.
“He’s not coming this time,” Peter answered for Tommy as the boisterous bully looked to the ground to hide his sadness.
“There’s another way to get on the train without being spotted,” Peter informed, sneaking Tommy and Benjamin near the unoccupied area beside the back of the train. Peter climbed his way through the small black doorway at the end carriage followed by Benjamin.
Deafening sounds of the steam blasting into the air made Tommy jump. The train’s piercing horns alerted everyone on the platform of the boarding call.
Peter snuck to the front of the train, carefully crossing through the carriages to inspect the engine room ahead of him. Tommy took a seat next to Benjamin who nervously fiddled with his torn ticket between his fingers.
“Where is he off to, now?” Tommy tugged Benjamin to follow him as he led the way through several carriages toward the middle of the train. Both darted in opposite directions to hide behind seats when the fireman of the train forcefully rushed past them toward the engine room.
Slowly peering over the carriage seats, Benjamin and Tommy spotted Peter up ahead of them, inside the engine room.
“He’s not supposed to be in there. He’s going to get us caught,” whispered Benjamin.
“Shut up, pipsqueak, or you’ll get us caught,” Tommy threatened.
Tommy peeked through the divider door to the next carriage and saw a long row of empty seats ahead. Just then, the train driver burst through a divider door behind them.
“Make sure you’ve checked the regulator,” the driver yelled up to the fireman when Tommy and Benjamin froze directly in his path. The sweating man looked so anxious and troubled that his manners were very blunt.
“What are you doing here?” snapped the driver. Tommy raised his ticket in front of the driver’s face for inspection hoping the ticket would somehow shield him from any questioning. By a quick and rather rude snatch, the train driver read the date on the new stub and handed it back to him.
“Well, sit down lad. I need to get past, this train ain’t going to drive itself,” he insisted. Tommy nervously stepped aside to let the older man pass.
Benjamin and Tommy were too distracted to see Peter slip out of the engine room amidst the crowd of boarding passengers, leaving his two friends to journey unknowingly alone.
Unfolding his original copy of the map, Peter used his index finger to follow the trail from London’s central station to another ‘X’ mark that highlighted the name ‘Viktor’ placed on the west end of the city.
“We’re ready for departure,” called the driver to the train conductor.
“Good, we’re already behind schedule,” the train conductor hollered back while he ushered more passengers onto the train.
Most of the passengers took to their seats in a hurry to rest their feet when the mammoth train eased its way out of London’s central station.
Both boys leaned out of the window to wave a fond farewell to the city. That was when they spotted Peter waving back to them.
“What in the name of King Henry are you doing down there?” Tommy yelled in panic.
“No time to explain boys. Just follow that map!” Peter called back, just enough time before the train took Benjamin and Tommy from sight.
***
Silence filled the train when the passengers settled. The hypnotic rocking of the carriages had sent Benjamin off to sleep as the train sped through the countryside at a great pace.
Thoughts of Peter stranded back in London worried Tommy. He bore the guilt for leaving George. Now with Peter gone too, Tommy felt alone with the added pressure of Benjamin to look after.
“At least we have the map,” Benjamin mumbled in his sleep, as if he had read Tommy’s anxious thoughts.
Outside, trees and bushes flew past the train window, showing beautiful scenery and many fields in the distance. But Tommy’s troubled mind refused to give him any peace, making the entire train journey a strenuous one.
Another hour had gone past when he surrendered to his tiredness and drifted off, resting his head on Benjamin’s shoulder.
It felt like he’d just closed his eyes when the train conductor shook both of them out of their sleep.
“Your stop, young Sirs,” he chuckled lightly.
Yawning loudly, the boys jumped off the steps of the train and landed on a hoary platform overgrown with moss. They looked around, smelling the fresh air and enjoying their first taste of true freedom in the middle of the countryside. The woodland area ahead was calm and completely desolate, which suited both runaways fine.
Tommy exited Warwickshire Station first, shuffling inside his pockets for the map.
“Check your pockets Benjamin, do you have the map?” His voice sounded desperate.
Benjamin eagerly unfolded his own map, relieved that Tommy hadn’t mentioned the money yet. No one really knew where the money came from or whom it belonged to, but Benjamin suspected it had something to do with the shifty-eyed Mr. Jennings, an idea he didn’t like to entertain.
Tommy quickly snatched the map and studied its directions to the black ‘X’ mark with the name ‘Jacob’ on it. The instructions were surprisingly simple to follow, leading them to a narrow path at the bottom of a tall muddy hillside.
“Well, that was easy,” mentioned Tommy after he lined the map up with the hill in front of them.
“I wonder what’s up there?” muttered Benjamin.