The Hog's Back Mystery

This is the first book I've read by Freeman Wills Croft (his real name), an Irish engineer in the daytime and a mystery book writer at night.  Croft was heavily involved in designing train bridges and track layouts, so he was certainly clever. His mechanical mind is apparant in this murder mystery, first published in 1933. In fact, it is so complicated, he included a map of the area of the crimes (the house, the woods, roads, bus routes and byways), a map that shows the actions of the two prime suspects on one night with times plotted out to prove that the unbelievably complicated series of events are in fact humanly possible, a description of each and every clue as it was found by Inspector French in the four weeks he investigated the crimes--including page references to when we first discovered each clue to prove to the reader that, yes, we could have figured it out, too, if we just been paying attention AND a timeline of all events, down to the minute, over the course of four weeks.  Yes, it was a damned complicated mystery. In fact, while I was very interested while I read it, it wasn't an emotionally gripping story as the struts and girders holding the story together were too apparent. Also, I never really got to know any of the characters--aside from the Scotland Yard inspector.  Everyone else is sort of 2 dimensional--I guess this is what happens when almost all events are told from his point of view. Nonetheless, the mystery was mysterious enough.

As mentioned above, the Scotland Yard investigator is Inspector French.  We are meeting French mid-career and he has already had quite a few famous successes solving other murder mysteries (which also involved engineering situations).  Croft wrote 23 French mysteries (he wrote non-French novels, too--all told about 35 novels) and this was was about his 10th or so.  Occasionally French remembers earlier mysteries he solved--conveniently he gives them the same names as the books so we can set out to buy them.  As with other Scotland Yard inspectors of this era, French is a happy man who enjoys smoking a pipe and drinking whiskey in moderation.  He loves his wife and he never works on weekends (unless he gets called in because a body has been found--but that doesn't happen too often) and he spends Sundays traveling around with is wife, picnicking and walking on trails along seasides.  He also likes to sit by the fire and do his heavy thinking when stuck on a case. We don't really meet his wife, but are told that they have been together for too many years to keep track of, and he says that they are perfectly suited to one another.

This book starts with the arrival of Ursula Stone who is visiting university friends she hasn't seen in over 10 years.  She's successfully runs a children's hospital "In Town" (London, I guess) and is taking a few weeks off for the first time in ages.  She arrives at the home of Julia, whose sister Marjorie is also visiting.  Julia recently married Dr. Earle, a semi-retired doctor who is shifting out of practicing medicine to researching medicine.  The marriage was rushed and now, a few years later, they are unhappy together.  They do not dislike each other, they just realize too well that they are too different: he wants to stay home and read and write, and she wants to gad about with young men who play golf, gamble on horses, and drive fancy sports cars.  Nonetheless, both Julia and Earle like Ursula so her visit is a happy one--until Earle vanishes.  The circumstances are inexplicable: Dinner is over, Ursula is visiting another university friend who lives about 10 miles away and Julia and Marjorie and doing the dishes and cleaning up after dinner.  Earle is in the study until he isn't--his body is gone, and there's no sign of violence.  He was wearing indoor clothes and slippers (we are told the nights are cold) and the car is in their garage. He took no papers or his wallet and no money.

It makes no sense but there is no sign of health emergency or murder, so Inspector French decides that it's a "voluntary disappearance" (someone runs away from an unhappy home or life).  Julia insists that Earle just wouldn't do such a thing.  Then it is revealed that weeks earlier he had met up with a nurse he occasionally worked with--and she has disappeared!  (Those who know her also insist that simply leaving without giving word to her employer is also completely out of keeping with her character).  So, that seems to seal it--they ran off together and he must have had other clothes and sources of money that his wife, Julia, didn't know about.

Then two weeks latr ANOTHER body disappears from the Earle home in exactly the same manner as Earle disappearance!  Well, the idea that all three have run off together (or run off in separate directions) is too stupid to believe so now we must presume that missing body 3 must be murder--and if that one is murder, perhaps the others are, too?  This prompts a far more serious body hunt than took place before when people were just looking for evidence of Earle stepping outside and slipping or having a heart attach.  And lo we have it--all three corpses--are found (in VERY grisly circumstances which I will not relate, I'll just say their deaths and decomposition are vividly described).  So now the question is: who could possibly have a motive to kill all three?  Anyone who would want to kill the doctor and nurse would seem to have no motive to kill Dead Person 3.  Anyone who would want to kill #3 would have no reason to kill the others....very mysterious.  And complicated.  I was very happy to have the maps and timelines.

First Hogbacks swim of 2025

 

Power cut follies

Fittingly, it being the official start of Summer, most of the US is now under a heat advisory.  This means high nineties, "feels-like" index in the triple digits (because of the extreme humidity).  This was kicked off for us yesterday morning in the pre-dawn hours when we had a massive thunderstorm - lightning, thunder, flash floods, the whole bit.  And it didn't bring down the temperature at all.  Since then it was in the 90s yesterday, so Frederick and I went for our second swim.  On the way home, Jami (who was at work) called to say that the power company had just texted her that "power had just been restored" - which was news to us, as we hadn't been at home (and power was unaffected at work).  "Phew - dodged a bullet there" we thought, because it's always stressful if the power goes out mid-film.  Then we got home and were relaxing when, at 3:30 there was a sudden loss-then-return-then-loss-then-return-then loss of power (in the space of seconds) and... no power.  Funnily (?) enough I had just joked to my mother over Zoom how terrible it would be if the power went out.  Well, we battened down the hatches and sealed up the house and the temperature stayed below 80.  I went into work with the air fryer trying to get power to run it for Frederick's suppertime potatoes, but the power had gone out there (although emergency power was keeping the air conditioning going, a fact I noted in case of emergencies).  Anyway, the power company, having said power would be restored by 8:30 PM (annoyingly, it was for people just one block away), kicked the deadline back to 4:30 AM, so we had to prepare for a hot night.  (I just saw a video online of somebody complaining that it was a sultry 79 degrees in Edinburgh today - well that was the overnight low for us last night.)  I had a brainwave: we went through a spell of getting refrigerated goods though the mail (ask Jami) and I, being the pack rat that I am, saved them all in the freezer we have in the basement.  So I slapped a few inside pillowcases and they were our bedmates, until the power did indeed come back at 2 AM (and of course, the lights all went on in Frederick's room).  But he was a saint through it all.  And we have blissful A/C again.  (But the power's still out at work.)

 

The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White

This is the first book I've read by White, a Welsh author who starting publishing in 1927 when she was 41 years old.  And, though she got to it fairly late in the game, she was extremely successful, with this being her most successful novel--and the source of one of Alfred Hitchkock's best movies, The Lady Vanishes. While the movie keeps the novel's key points, it does take some liberties: first, the charming pair Charters and Caldicott (who seem to be in every British movie in the 30s) are not in the novel, and , second, while we meet our heroine's love interest (played by Michael Redgrave in the movie) at the hotel at the start of the novel, there is no tussle over rooms. The movie is an unsubtle call to English people to get off their arses, take the political hostilities in Europe seriously, get armed, and start killing people.  The novel mentions the political instabilities of small European countries whose citizens don't have the decency to speak English, there is no hint of a war.  Yet the theme is the same: English people are at their worst when they are more concerned with their own selfish interests (driven by fear of their sins becoming public, loss of social status, and--most pathetic of all--a fear of missing out of key social events--what kids today call FOMO: Fear of Missing Out). But once they actually get off their arses and take a good look at what is right in front of them, they can demonstrate genuine heroism.  

So our story begins at a hotel in a tiny Alpian village in an unspecified country.  All we know is that very few English tourists know the native language (so it isn't French, Italian or German we can infer) and it sounds "harsh and choppy" to their ears.  Our heroine, Iris, has become engaged to someone who will make a suitable husband, the only problem is that she doesn't love him at all--it's not even clear she likes him. So before the big day, she and her gal pals are traveling around Europe, spending a lot of money, drinking a lot, sleeping around (their sexploits are not described explicitly but it's clear that they are having sex with married men as the wives are furious---not so much that their husbands were unfaithful but that they, the wives, cannot find someone to be unfaithful with).  Although Iris has enjoyed her time with her friends up until this last evening, she realizes she cannot stand them: they're noisy, shallow, unpleasant and, worst of all, boring. At the start of the novel, they are discussing their departure the next morning.  Iris suddenly announces that she plans to stay a bit longer.  Her friends are surprised but, perhaps tellingly, don't attempt to dissuade her of that plan. She's hurt and then becomes defiant--she's determined to stay behind and have the best day of her life alone.

Iris awakes to a much emptier hotel since about half the hotel guests are gone (they left on the train with her friends) and many of the hotel workers are packing up to go back to their home towns since it's the end of the tourist season. The remaining few people are all preparing to leave the following day.  Determined to make the most of her last day, Iris tries to enjoy breakfast but finds that all the other guests snub her, tarring her with the same brush they tarred her boistrous friends: no one will sit with her, talk with her, or even smile at her. Gripped with a loneliness she's never felt before, she decides to go on a last hike up the mountain to get one last look at the amazing views.  But, unlike days in the past, the sky is cloudy, the air is cold, and the views are leaden and dull.  Caught up in her own thoughts, she gets hopelessly lost.  Angry with herself for being so incompetant, she slips and scrapes her legs on the stony paths and feels real panic. She then realizes that she never paid attention on the previous walks, she just followed along with everyone else in the group, letting them decide which trail to take and which views to admire.  And here is a pivotal moment which launches the whole novel: she realizes for the first time in her entire life that she's never been alone--really alone. She's always followed "the crowd," letting them pick places to eat, clothes to buy, clubs to visit, echoing their likes and dislikes--her whole life has been defined by a crowd of people that she now finds absolutely loathsome. (We're witnessing a real Kafkaesque moment here.) Right then and there she decides, assuming she doesn't die of exposure on the moutain, she is going to change her ways: she's going to be her own person, assert her own thoughts regardless of what others think. (Cue foreboding music....)

Blessedly, she sees in the distance one of the couples she knows is staying at her hotel.  Legs aching and weak with hunger, she runs toward them, using them as a signpost to find her way back to familiar sights.  Once she's back at the hotel, she sits in the diningroom, alone at her table--no longer hurt from the rejection but adopting an attitude of cautious curiosity balanced with indifference.  

Let's meet the English characters:  

The Misses Flood-Porter: Two spinsters with strong views about everything, particularly how English people should behave.  (Older sister: "We always make a point of wearing evening dress for dinner, when we're on the Continent."  Younger sister: "If we didn't dress, we should feel we were letting England down.") Both are in a hurry to get home as an extremely important church event is coming up and they absolutely MUST be there for it.

Reverand and Mrs. Barnes: He's a boor and she's weak.  He's almost always airsick, trainsick or seasick, which causes his wife to fuss over him, demanding that everyone be absolutely quiet otherwise they will upset her husband and make him worse. Both are infatuated with their son, Brian, who is a few years old and has never been left alone with his grandmother before. Both promised each other to "forget" Brian and enjoy themselves on this special trip, but neither can and both are miserable, longing to pack up and get home.  Mrs. Barnes invents bad dreams about Brian to convince her husband that these are "signs" of terrible things happening to Brian.  He dismisses her claims but, caving to his own desperate desire to see that his son hasn't drown, been hit by a car and incinerated by an exploding toaster all at the same time, agrees that they should take cut their remaining travels short and take the most direct path back home as quickly as possible. Any time the train slows even to go through a tunnel they are gripped with a panic, convinced that the forces of the universe are conspiring to keep them from ever seeing their precious child ever again.

The Todhunters: Two amazingly beautiful, wealthy, well-dressed people tell everyone they are on their honeymoon. They are lying, of course, and both are married to other people. He's a barrister and will only see his mistress ("Mrs. Todhunter") in hotels at least 4 countries over, convinced that if their photos end up in the papers, his career and his wealth (which comes from his wife's family) will wither on the vine. She believes she has finally convinced him to leave his wife for her. That's not going to happen.

Professor and Max Hare: These two share a train car and love to debate everything, but in particular the jury system in English courts.  The Professor is a professor.  He teaches at a university and values scientific evidence above all else.  Max Hare is an engineer who helps small, struggling nations design and build bridges and other bits of infrastructure. He's hardly ever home and his work has put him in some politially precarious situations. He is very serious all while pretending to be silly and, of course, falls head over heels in love with Iris the minute he sees her. She thinks he's silly and isn't interested in him...at least not until page 252 (the last page of the book). The Professor has an obligation the day after the train is set to arrive in London and so he doesn't want any delays but...he could be persuaded to take an interest in a train delaying mystery if he is presented with sufficient empirical evidence. Hare isn't in any hurry but he can't stop thinking about the time he got conked on the head and had hallucinations--so vivid they seemed utterly real--right after and so is pretty certain that anyone who's had a head injury is most likely going to have very vivid hallucinations.  

While waiting on the platform, Iris feels a sudden terrible pain in her head and falls over in a faint.  When she comes to, she is on the ground, dazed, and surrounded by a circle of strange faces, none smiling or speaking to her.  She has no idea what happened. All she knows is that her head hurts and she's about to miss her train.  The people circling her try to stop her, wanting to keep her laying on the ground a bit longer, but she's desperate to leave.  She runs for the train, barely making it before it pulls out of the station.  It's over crowded and, barely able to stand, she stumbles down the corridor (prompting the Misses Flood-Porters to speculate that she is hungover or even worse, drunk mid morning), trying to find a place to sit. Finally--in the very last car--she finds a car with a bit of room.  

The people sharing Iris's train car: 

The Baroness: a short, heavy, older woman wearing all black clothes and a black veil.  She's evil and doesn't make any effort to hide it.

A vaccuous blonde woman who spends all her time adjusting her makeup and staring, blankly, out the train car window.

The small family (father, mother and young girl) who only have eyes for one another. [White's descriptions of these people is amazing: all are wearing only b/w, one all in plaid, one in stripes and one in only polka dots which, like Morse code, thump painfully on Iris's injured brain.]

Mrs. Froy: She's an older lady (the novel doesn't tell us her age but her parents are in their 80s).  She has a motor mouth so we learn ALL about her parents, her dog, her house back home in England, the back yard, the duck pond....and she's wearing an "oatmeal" tweed suit, blue blouse and a blue hat with a feather in it.  

The people in the car right next to Iris's car:

Doctor: This is the guy who can play every evil doctor in every 1930s-1950s movie, particularly if they are German. He's shifty, has a black goatee beard that he strokes when he is scheming, and he plays fast and loose with tablets he claims are "harmless" and will "cure" Iris. And if he cannot convince people to get Iris to drink tea or soup heavily dosed with these "sleeping pills" the only other thing to do is to convince her to get off the train in Trieste where he will have an ambulance waiting to take her to a "nursing home" where she can "get a good night's rest."  

Nurse: A small woman who doesn't talk, but is wearing a nurses cap and cloak the whole time, and sits staring at a "patient." Significantly, later in the novel this nurse is no longer small and youthful, but larger, beefier and has traces of a moustache.

Patient:  This person is wrapped head to toe in white gauze. and is ties to a gurney, which is in the center of the train car.  Only their eyes can be seen and they are closed, having been heavily sedated.  According to the doctor, the poor woman had her face "smashed in" and desperately needs extensive surgery. To unwrap her would be to kill her.  

The train starts and Mrs. Froy lets loose an endless stream of babble about herself, her recent job as a governess, her previous travels, places she has yet to go....she burbles--in the train car, in the corridor as they walk to the restaurant car, in the restaurtant care while they drink tea, back down the corridor and back into to their seats...on and on Mrs. Froy talks. Iris just says "Ah" and "Really?" occasionally and slowly...slowly...falls into a deep and very troubled sleep.  Sometime later the train jerks, Iris snaps awake, and sees everyone in the train car with her exactly as before...except Mrs. Froy.  Initially relieved to be free of her chatter, Iris becomes increasingly worried after a few hours go by--after all, where the hell could she be on an overcrowded train? She asks her cabin mates but none know who she is talking about.  English lady?  No, Iris is the only English lady they know about.  Lady in a hat in the seat across from Iris?  Nope, just the young blonde. Iris gets up to find someone who can corroborate her story.  And this is where her fellow English travelors really let her down: of course they've seen her with Mrs. Froy--the two walked back and forth when they went to have their tea--but each is for their own reasons unwilling to admit to it, as they know that to declare that an English lady has gone missing will cause the train to be searched, everyone questioned, perhaps even held up in the next station to be searched by the police. Nope, no one wants that, so they all insist Iris is delusional or hysterical (according to the Professor), "attention seeking" (that's the Misses Flood-Porters's assertion), confused because of the head injury (Mrs. Barnes and Hare).  Even weirder, when Iris gets back to her seat, there is Mrs Froy--only she doesn't look or act like Mrs. Froy! True, she's wearing the same oatmeal tweed suit, but this Mrs. Froy is sullen and silent and has a cruel face. See!--everyone says. There's your Mrs. Froy--she's been here the whole time! 

And here is the moment where Iris's resolve to think independently is put to the test: She's certain she met a Mrs. Froy--and not the person who is now claiming to be Mrs. Froy. But she knows her story sounds utterly insane--moreover, she also knows that she really did pass out, her head is pounding, and she hasn't eaten in two days. Yet she just can't shake the feeling that something terrible has happened to Mrs. Froy and that being a good person means trying everything in her power to help Mrs. Froy.

And so begins a mystery smothered in a psychological thriller wrapped in political intrigue as Iris not only has to convince everyone she isn't dangerously crazy, but also convince them to let her search the train when they believe letting her do so would only fuel her unhinged mind.

Where is Mrs. Froy? Will Iris get packed off into a "nursing home"?  Will she go home and marry her finace or will she end up traveling into the back and beyond with a secretly intelligent engineer? Is Brian Barnes safe with his grandma?

One last bit of trivia: Apparently White was terrified of being buried alive and so stipulated in her will that her sister would inherit her entire estate but only if she first hired a "qualified surgeon to plunge a knife into [her] heart after death." So she feared being buried alive more than being stabbed while alive? I have no idea if the court actually required her sister to follow through on this, but I hope so.   

First swim of the Summer!

 

A closer view of the frogs

 

Things to see in our back garden

 

Mystery in White by J Jefferson Farjeon

Ok, now this is a creepy story. It was written in 1937 and, although The Wars do not figure directly, the effects of WWI are an important part of the story and the anticipation of England getting involved in a second world war is somberly discussed by the characters.  But, for now, they are war free and Christmas is coming so everyone is eagerly heading out of London to better things.

Our story begins in a stuffy train car late afternoon on December 24.  The train has stopped because of snow on the track and we find six people, each getting increasingly anxious that they will be stuck on that train all through Christmas.  They are:   

David and Lydia Carrington: Brother and sister, both in their early 20s, are headed to a happy Christmas house party.  Both are described as good looking, smart and capable--sort of a sibling jolly hockeysticks pair.

Jessie Noyes: A very young (sort of implied underage) chorus girl.  She looks baby faced and innocent, but has had her share of hard knocks and has a very good idea of how the world actually works.  She's heading to Manchester to meet with a possible employer who is offering a long term contract--if she shows up on time and meets his needs.  She's both worried that it's not what it pretends to be and, if it is and she misses it because of the train delay, she'll lose out on her big break. She keeps a diary and her entries are how we find out about off screen events.  

Robert Thomson:  A nervous clerk with two pinks spots on his cheeks because he's stressed, embarassed, exhausted, or scared. (He's the character prone to fainting--there's always one.) He is a romantic sort who falls in love with every pretty girl he sees but never has the nerve to talk to.  He imagines saving each in increasingly elaborate fantasies  His favorite fantasy is saving a girl after an airplane crash. He's not exactly sure how to save her but he is confident that, once he does, she'll fall in love with him.  He falls instantly in love with Jessie--she's platinum blonde--the real thing! But Lydia is pretty, too, in a more sporty and bold sort of way.  This prompts him to revise his fantasy to have two girls who need rescuing from an airplane crash. He's preocupied with the logistics of this story--would he carry both?--so doesn't talk much in the train car other than to tell everyone that he's "Thomson without a 'p'" and that he's on his way to visit an elderly (and loathed) aunt who dangles wealth but never gives him any because she thinks he's useless. (She's right.)

Edward Maltby: A small, elderly man with white hair.  He plays the part of a dottering old fool, but it turns out he's a lot sharper than he pretends.  He's a book author and researcher of psychic events and all things "other worldly."  The others reagrd him as interesting and silly, but it turns out it's a good thing he's along for this mystery as they have no idea how to handle what they are about to be up against.

"The Bore," Mr. Hopkins: He is an older man, though not old, so I would guess late 50s or early 60s. He's spent his younger years traveling the wild parts of the world and no matter what anyone says, he has a story that tops it based on his first hand experiences in the Yukon, jungles of India or wilds of South America.  He has decided that Jessie is "easy" and so makes lascivious remarks to her every time the conversation lags. She rebuffs him repeatedly and then he claims his feelings are hurt and he demands a kiss from her for an apology. Everyone finds being with him excruciating.

Ok, let's get to the action. Having decided that they'd be better off walking to the next train line which is just a few miles over, across some fields, the four young things start to get up to go. Mr. Hopkins thinks they're foolish but decides he must do something to impress them, so leaves the cabin to hunt down a porter. Mr. Maltby is dithering as to whether he's up for the walk, given how cold it is outside and how quickly the snow is piling up, but he certainly doesn't want to spend all night alone with Mr. Hopkins.  Then five things happen at once: (1) Mr. Hopkins rushes back in, looking like he's running from the devil. He denies having seen anything odd but won't talk about it--the first time he's been quiet since the journey began; (2) A man runs from the car next to them, down the corridor, opens the door to outside, jumps out, and heads across the field. (3) Mr. Maltby jumps up, goes out into the corridor, decides conclusively that he MUST walk with them--and that they must leave immediately. (4) The four young ones grab their bags and coats and are rushed out the door by Mr. Maltby. (5) Mr. Hopkins, still terrified, insults them and pouts in the cabin by himself. 

Our group, now down to five, heads across the fields, blinded by whirling snow which has filled up ravines and gullies. One or another is always misstepping, falling over, and getting turned around.  At one point, they tumble down a steep, wooded hill, landing in a heap at the bottom.  All are fine except Jessie, who has twisted her shapely ankle. This is Thomson's chance!  But rather than swoop her up and carry her so she can fall in love with him, he stands there uselessly so David picks her up and tells him to carry Jessie's small overnight bag.  Having no idea where to go, they try to follow the tracks that that other guy left, the one who ran from the train. Soon, though, they realize that there are two sets of tracks which have intertwined over each other, one going one way, the other set going in another direction.  Now, thoroughly exhausted, frozen stiff and terrified, they wonder what to do.  Should they go to the left?  Go to the right?  Go back to the train?  David decides there is NO WAY he could carry Jessie all the way back to the train, so they head to the right, not very confident that that is the way to go.  But, fortunately (or is it?) they see a light appear in the darkness: it's a house!  Giddy with relief, they go to the door and knock.  No one answers. But someone MUST be home, because they can see lights on and lit candles. They decide they have to go in if only to avoid freezing to death.  In they go, and each calls out to anyone in the house.  No one answers--yet there HAD to be someone there very recently: there is a crackling fire in the fireplace in the livingroom and (they find out later) in one of the bedrooms; the diningroom is all laid out for a big meal; the kitchen has a tea tray prepared and the tea is still steaming hot! Then they notice a bread knife on the floor, the door in the kitchen to behind the house wide open letting snow blow in, and footprints leading out, as if someone ran as fast as they could from the house. Well, isn't that a hell of a thing!

Scared to stay, too cold, exhausted and hungry to leave, they decide to be sensible and ignore all signs of a terrible crime and get warmed up and drink their tea. Just as they are settling in the livingroom they see a terrifying portrait of a strangely old/young man staring down at them--one of those paintings where the eyes seem to follow you wherever you are in the room. Then they hear a terrible commotion at the front door. What are they more afraid of--an angry owner or a knife dropping murderer or that damned painting?  In stumbles a "Mr. Smith" (no one believes this is his real name), a giant thug with a "common" (read: ungrammatical) way of speaking.  He's resentful, fearful and demands a cup of tea. While he slurps his cuppa, he tells them a ridiculous tale of how he got there: he claimed he wasn't on a train, didn't walk from anywhere, and that train ticket that fell out of his coat pocket wasn't his. Fed up with their questions, he flies into a rage and heads out the door. Seconds later they hear terrified shouts and screams, and then in walks The Bore, Mr. Hopkins.  He stumbles in, covered in snow and all full of himself, sees their tea and demands a cup.  Jessie dies a little inside, dreading his lurid suggestions--and she's right to do so, because once he's warmed up, he plops down next to her on the couch and offers to rub her sore ankle.  At that point, she decides she's going to use the bath upstairs and then lie down--and Hopkins offers to join her there, if you can believe it!  Fortunately, Lydia knows how to shut him down and helps Jessie up the stairs. Meanwhile, our flustered clerk (again furious with himself for missing the chance to save Jessie from Hopkins) offers to clean up the dishes in the kitchen. Hopkins' story is that he decided he DID want off the train and he tried to follow them, but got hopelessly muddled when their 5 sets of footprints turned into 7 sets of tracks, all winding around and messing the other tracks.  Only when Mr. Smith opened the door and the firelight spilled out did he see that he was near a house and found his way to the door.

Well, now they wonder what to do: should they leave as quickly as possible? sit quietly by the fire, making sure to not break anything (sounds of the pink cheeked clerk dropping tea cups in the kitchen dispel any hope of that)? help themselves to a full Christmas dinner, a good night's sleep and hope for the best? It's the last plan that Lydia pushes for: she's determined that they have a jolly Christmas eve with presents the next morning. She even announces that she's going to find holly and mistletoe outside! Well, that's not going to happen...

In no particular order: Thomson becomes gravely ill and faints and slips into a fever dream full of angry elephantine aunts and smooth shapely ankles; Jessie lays down in a bed upstairs and enters a strange fugue state where she has visions of people being murdered in the house--one poisoned and another bonked with a hammer; Mr. Maltby finds evidence that the caretaker is named  Mr. Shaw and surmises that he was the one who ran pell-mell out of the house from the kitchen; David heads outside to see where Smith went and finds a corpse half buried in the snow and then two more people in a car crashed into a tree--a Mr. Strange and his daughter, Nora, who are owners of the house yet Nora's never seen it before and her father hasn't been there in almost 25 years--since the mysterious death of his father. (Who literally died in the middle of a sentence that began, "I'm sorry, son, I shouldn't have disowned you.  I want to take care of you and have decided to"----gurgle and then death rattle.)  They explain all the broken cups, used towels and the sweaty clerk sleeping in one of the beds upstaris.  Nora and her father are surprisinly easy going about it. Of course Nora is beautiful and David falls instantly in love with her...   

Ok, by now we are barely through chapter 4.  What else can possibly happen? Well, we need to find out who killed the old man in the portrait, why Mr. Strange is so, well, "strange," who the corpse in the snow is, where Shaw went (did he kill the corpse?) and, who killed the guy in the train car next to them back in chapter 1 (yes, that's the event that set Hopkins off) and then ran out into the snow and made tracks that everyone's been following around and around? Was that Mr Smith--but then who killed Smith?  Or, is there someone else roaming around out there, just waiting for people to be alone so they can pick them off, one by one--and is that Shaw?  But he wasn't on the train, he was in the house making tea....how many murderers are there??? 

It turns out that there are a LOT of murderers circling this house. I won't give anything away, but let's just say that by the time the snow has melted a bit and the police show up, four murders are solved and everyone decides that ghost stories are not just silly things kids make up. At the end of the story Jessie  is sitting next to Mr. Strange as he eats his Christmas dinner so he won't be lonely. She later writes in her diary, "I stayed with him till dinner was over--he wasn't allowed much of it, poor fellow.  And I could see him falling in love with me, it's awful, I get all the wrong people." She sure does.