1912 mystery/adventure anthology, including the stories of Thorpe
Hazell, the Railway Detective.
And one can feel the long shadow of Sherlock Holmes and his early
imitators falling over these stories (some years after Chesterton had
been doing a rather better job with Father Brown). If the detective
will not have a sidekick, he must have a Gimmick: and Thorpe Hazell's
gimmick is that he is a fad-dieting vegetarian, and a preachy one (an
early example of the cliché). I was reminded of his existence because
of a passing mention of Plasmon biscuits (enriched with milk albumen,
i.e. whey protein). What's more, he performs bizarre digestive
exercises before and after each meal. (Usually "exercises" in scare
quotes, in case you should miss the point that this is meant to make
him seem ridiculous and unfit for normal society, and he's only
tolerated because of his railway-focused genius.)
Of course, the point of the stories is in the railway detail, and as
someone who grew up with Rolt's Red for Danger I was able to fall
quickly into the technology of the day.
"Peter Crane's Cigars": a known Bad Lad is undercutting the local good
tobacconist's prices. Clearly he must be smuggling, but how? Of
course, it's by using the railway. (When the smuggled goods are found,
Hazell is happy to snag a few before the police are called.)
"The Tragedy On The London And Mid-Northern" has a man has a man
apparently killed because he leaned too far out of a window and struck
something by the line. But of course it's never that simple. (And as
is often the case, Hazell decides that the reason for the crime was
good enough and so there's no need to tell the police.)
Few bicycles of any wear lack some distinguishing mark in the tyres, and
Hazell was soon satisfied, after a little examination, that the ones in
question were Clipper Reflex, and that a small bit had been chipped out
of the back tyre, making its mark plainly in the road.
"The Affair Of the Corridor Express" has a wealthy man's son
disappearing while under supervision on a train—even though the train
was searched before it stopped.
"Sir Gilbert Murrell's Picture" has a wagon disappearing from the
middle of a train, and I suspect doesn't work in the era of the
Westinghouse brake; perhaps this was not available to goods wagons.
"How the Bank Was Saved" brings us Whitechurch's favourite sort of
villain, a Filthy Foreigner, who's casually able to cause a run on a
bank but needs railway-related shenanigans to bring the trick off
completely—which Hazell can foil.
"The Affair Of the German Dispatch-Box" is more thriller than mystery;
the diplomatic dispatch-box with the stolen papers must not be allowed
to leave England, but without causing an incident.
"There's just one plan that occurs to me. It's a very desperate one,
and even if it succeeds it will land me in prison."
"In England?" asked the other.
"Rather. I'm not going to play any tricks on the Continent, I can
tell you.
"How the Bishop Kept His Appointment" has a bishop who, because he
doesn't want to be late for a meeting, thinks it entirely reasonable
to demand that the railway company make special arrangements for his
travel after the train on which he's travelling is derailed. Hazell,
who of course saves the day, looks almost sympathetic by comparison.
Though we do get the details of his diet:
oatmeal, macaroni, lentils, and Dutch cheese
"The Adventure Of The Pilot Engine" starts with the Villains:
Two of them were of a distinctly foreign appearance, the third might
have belonged to any nationality.
and is mostly about a cunning scheme to wreck a train with an
Important Personage on it, foiled of course by Hazell.
"The Stolen Necklace" has a theft of a diamond necklace from a foolish
young lady, a Most Obvious Culprit, and a bit of cunning to sort it
all out.
"The Mystery Of The Boat Express" has someone shot in a locked
compartment, apparently a suicide, but the details aren't right. And
the British police are quite happy to let foreigners murder each other
as long as they don't touch the English: "When one enters the Secret
Service of a Government one takes all risks, and you and your brother
ought to have known this."
That is the last of the Hazell stories, and the others in the
collection are more thriller than mystery.
"How the Express Was Saved" has strikers (depicted here as not just
self-interested but actively evil) setting out to derail a train, and
one heroic lad who gets the word out in time.
"A Case Of Signalling" has a young fireman exchanging messages with
his sweetheart via signal lamp and Morse code as his train goes past
the house where she's employed. Of course, other messages can be sent too.
"Winning the Race" has one train that (thanks to a ticklish diplomatic
situation, a common occurrence in these things) must arrive before
another; this is done by various cunning means. Worth it for the
endnote alone:
[Note for the benefit of railway experts:—In order to simplify the
story I have made no reference to the "distant signals." They would,
however, have been worked as follows: For the boat express the "up
distant" could not have been taken off, but, of course, the driver
would have run by it. For the special, Duquesne would have taken it
off, first pulling the lever actuating the "home main," but, in this
case, only pulling a broken wire. The interlocking details will
readily occur to the expert.]
"The Strikers" has more Evil Strikers who set out to cause a wreck,
frightening even themselves when they realise what they've set in
motion, but it's averted by a smart lad and some more minor damage.
"The Ruse That Succeeded" could as well be a Thorpe Hazell story: a
man has to be got onto a yacht before the Russian Secret Police catch
him, and the railway expert works out a way to delay the train that
the latter are travelling by without doing any injury.
I have to say that even as an enthusiast for early mysteries these
fell pretty flat for me. Nobody really has much of a personality, and
while the tricks are quite neat, they never seem quite as startling
either in the execution or in the resolution as they should.
Freely available where the law permits from Project Gutenberg
Australia which is
the version I read; other editions have different contents.