Chapter 3 Chapter One Provocative Action

Forty minutes after leaving London, the morning train of the South Eastern Railway reached a top speed of fifty-four miles an hour through the rolling green fields and cherry orchards of Kent.On the bright blue-painted locomotive, the driver in the red uniform can be seen standing tall in the open air, without any carriage or windshield in front of him, while the engineman at his feet is bent over, shoveling coal into the Inside the burning engine stove.Behind the whining engines and coal wagons came three yellow first-class cars, followed by seven second-class cars, and finally a gray windowless luggage car.

As the train clanged along the tracks towards the coast, the sliding doors of the luggage compartments swung open, revealing a fierce, desperate struggle within.The opponents on both sides were extremely out of proportion: a thin boy in ragged clothes was punching a burly train guard in blue uniform.The young lad, despite his frailty, had a good form and landed a hard blow or two on the bulky opponent.The guard was beaten to his knees, but he quickly jumped forward and knocked the skinny boy out of the open door of the train by surprise. After he landed, he rolled over and fell to the ground like a broken baby.

The guard panted, and looked back at the shadow of the boy who fell out and retreated rapidly.Then close the sliding door.The train galloped forward, the whistle blared.After turning around a gentle bend, all that remained was the faint hum of the engine, the lingering gray smoke slowly covering the rails, and the boy's motionless body. After a minute or two, the kid on the ground woke up.He was in so much pain that he propped himself up on one elbow and was about to stand up.But the effort was in vain, and he soon collapsed to the ground, motionless after a wave of dying convulsions. Half an hour later, an elegant four-wheeled black carriage appeared, and the bright crimson vehicle ran over the dirt road parallel to the railroad tracks.The carriage drove to a small hill, and the driver stopped the horse.A gentleman of extraordinary temperament alighted from the car, wearing a fashionable dark green velvet frock coat and a tall beaver fur hat.The gentleman climbed the knoll, binoculars in front of his eyes, and looked at the stretch of railroad track in the distance.He immediately focused on the body of the fallen young man.But the gentleman had no intention of approaching him, or helping him in any way; instead, he stood on the knoll until he was sure the boy was dead.Only then did he turn, return to the waiting carriage, and head the way he had come, heading north back to London.