They made their way very slowly — and then Dick gave a sharp cry. “Blow! I’ve twisted my ankle. Half a minute!”

He sank down to the ground in great pain. It was only a sharp twist, not a sprain, but for a few minutes Dick could do nothing but groan. The others dared not leave him. Julian knelt by him, offering to rub the ankle, but Dick wouldn’t let him touch it. Jock stood by anxiously.

It took about twenty minutes for Dick’s ankle to be strong enough for him to stand on again. With the help of the others he got to his feet and tested his ankle. “It’s all right, I think. I can walk on it — slowly. Now we’ll go to the yard and see what’s happening!”

But even as they started to walk slowly back, they heard a noise coming up the lines from the far-away yard, “Rumble, rumble, rumble, jangle, clank!”

“It’s coming back again!” said Julian. “Stand still. Watch! It’ll be going back into the tunnel!”

They stood still and watched and listened. Again the noise came nearer and grew thunderous. They saw the glow of what might be the fire in the cab, and then it passed. The train disappeared into the blackness of the tunnel mouth and they heard the echo of its rumblings for some time.

“Well, there you are? There is a spook-train!” said Julian, trying to laugh, though he felt a good deal shaken. “It came and it went — where from or where to, nobody knows! But — we’ve heard it and seen it, in the darkness of the night. And jolly creepy it was, too!”

Chapter Eleven

Mostly about Jock

The three boys stood rather close together, glad to feel each other in the darkness. They couldn’t believe that they had found what they had come looking for so doubtfully! What kind of a train was this that had come rumbling out of the tunnel so mysteriously, and then, after a pause at the yard, had gone just as mysteriously back again?

“If only I hadn’t twisted my ankle, we could have followed the train down the lines to the yard, and have gone quite close to it there,” groaned Dick. “What an ass I am, messing things up at the most exciting moment!”

“You couldn’t help it,” said Jock. “I say! We’ve seen the spook-train! I can hardly believe it. Does it go all by itself, with nobody to drive it? Is it a real train?”

“Judging by the noise it made, it’s real all right,” said Julian. “And it shot out smoke, too. All the same — it’s jolly queer. I can’t say I like it much.”

“Let’s go and see what’s happened to Wooden-Leg Sam,” said Dick. “I bet he’s under his bed!”

They made their way slowly back to the yard, Dick limping a little, though his ankle was practically all right again. When they came to the yard they looked towards Sam’s hut. The light was there no longer.