Ghost Soldier Read online

  There was a silence; then Chesney leaned forward and hissed in Rob’s ear, ‘If you don’t leave I’ll have your soldier father put on a charge and locked up for years.’

  ‘You can’t put Daddy on a charge and lock him up.’ To Rob’s astonishment, it was Millie who spoke up. ‘He’s missing in the war and that’s why we’re here. To find out if he’s on this train.’

  ‘You shouldn’t be on this train,’ Chesney snapped at her.

  ‘Medical orderly! Stand down!’

  An army officer and the nurse had appeared at the carriage door.

  ‘Sir,’ Chesney protested. ‘This boy disobeyed instructions.’

  ‘Stand down,’ the officer repeated. ‘That’s an order.’

  Chesney glared at Rob. When he’d gone, the officer leaned against the door, looked around, and then said in mild tones, ‘My name is Captain Morrison. I’d be obliged if someone would bring me up to date on this situation.’

  There was a silence.

  ‘Anyone at all? Please.’

  The soldier tied to the metal rail stopped mumbling and spoke up without opening his eyes. ‘Soldier Jack the Lad here is really good at nicking things. Handcuff keys, guns, and such like. He’s been planning his escape ever since we got on at Folkestone. When the train stopped, he was ready to leg it when this little girl turns up asking questions about where the regiments are posted. So he decides she’s a German spy and—’

  ‘A German spy.’ The lad with the gun tightened his grip on the pistol.

  ‘I’m not a German spy!’ Millie squeaked.

  Nell’s tail was down. Until now she’d had the good sense not to make a noise. But reacting to the alarm in Millie’s voice, she crouched, growling.

  ‘Quiet, Nell,’ said Rob.

  The lad with the gun gave a start and looked at the dog. ‘Nell?’ he said. The gun wavered in his hand. ‘Nell?’

  Then the most surprising thing happened. Nell stood up and wagged her tail.

  ‘Nell,’ the boy said again, more confidently.

  And to Rob’s amazement, Nell trotted forward to stand quite happily beside the young soldier.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘I COULD LOOK after that gun for you, son.’

  Captain Morrison was first to recover. He held out his hand. The young lad unclenched his grip on the pistol and the officer took it carefully from him.

  Rob looked at the floor. He didn’t want to watch what happened next. He knew enough about the army to understand that a soldier who threatened an officer with a gun would be arrested and shot at dawn.

  But the captain slipped the gun inside his tunic and said to the nurse, ‘Give our young soldier some of those knockout drops you reserve for emergencies. When he’s being assessed in Edinburgh, I’ll see if we can get him admitted to a psychiatric unit somewhere. Maybe some smart doctor can straighten out his brain. And – oh,’ he added, ‘I suggest you put a note in his record that he has a special skill for . . . how shall we put it? . . . appropriating unattended objects.’ He touched his cap to the nurse and left.

  The lad was stroking Nell’s coat as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

  The nurse and Bert came into the carriage. The nurse said, ‘Bert will look after you while I go and make you the best cup of tea you ever had.’

  Bert knelt beside the lad. ‘You seem to know this dog,’ he said.

  ‘It’s Nell,’ he replied. He kept patting the dog. ‘Rob’s dog. She’s a clever dog. The best sheepdog in the Borders.’

  ‘The dog certainly likes you, Jack,’ Bert said.

  Rob knelt down too. He looked the lad full in the face. In the stressed and worn features there was something he recognized. ‘Jack? Is that your name?’ he asked. ‘Do I know you? Are you from round these parts?’

  The boy didn’t reply.

  ‘It’s Jack!’ Millie exclaimed. ‘He’s the lad from the Otterby farm. We used to meet him on the hills at lambing time and at the sheepdog trials.’

  ‘Jack the Lad,’ the handcuffed soldier chimed in. ‘Told you so. Should we put on a show to entertain the troops? We’ve got him and the dog. All we need now is a cow and a beanstalk and we’re sorted.’

  ‘You’re all right there, Private Ames,’ Bert quietened him.

  ‘You reckon so?’ The private held up his handcuffed wrist. ‘I didn’t think this would happen when I joined up.’

  ‘We had to do that for your own protection. When we get to the hospital you’ll get proper care.’

  ‘Have they got magic beans there?’ Private Ames grimaced. ‘That’s what we need. Magic beans. A cow, a beanstalk, and some magic beans.’ He lapsed into mumbling to himself again. And all the while, Rob noted, he never once opened his eyes.

  The nurse returned with two mugs of tea. She gave one to the handcuffed soldier and handed the other one to Jack. He looked at it suspiciously.

  ‘I ain’t drinking that,’ he said. ‘They put stuff in your tea, you know’ – he partially covered his mouth with his hand as he spoke to Rob – ‘to make you fight. Don’t trust them. Don’t trust any of them. Tell you lies. Say the wire’s been cut. Land mines been cleared. Advance! Enemy trenches destroyed! Advance! Advance! In line formation. Walk slowly. Shoulder to shoulder. Enemy trenches empty. But they were waiting with machine guns to mow us down. Lies! Lies!’

  Bert and the nurse glanced at each other. It was obvious that Jack was becoming agitated again.

  ‘Would you like a plum-jam sandwich?’ Millie took the teacloth off her basket and held it out.

  Jack shook his head.

  ‘I made them especially for my daddy in case he was on the train. Plum is his favourite jam and they’re very tasty.’

  ‘I’d like one,’ the handcuffed soldier said. ‘I can smell home-made jam and fresh bread.’

  ‘My mummy made the jam and the bread, but I helped a lot,’ Millie told him. She went over and guided his hands to the basket so he could take a sandwich.

  ‘Oh, my,’ said the private. ‘That’s the best food I’ve had for twelve months and a day.’ He smacked his lips loudly with his eyes shut tight.

  On sudden inspiration, Rob said, ‘Don’t forget to give Nell some.’ He took a piece of bread and gave it to his dog.

  As soon as he saw Nell eating the sandwich, Jack peered into the basket and selected one for himself. Then he lifted his mug and began to drink the tea. Bert and the nurse smiled in relief. The effect was almost immediate. Jack’s eyelids drooped, and he slid sideways. The nurse rescued the mug from his limp fingers before it fell onto the floor. Bert went behind Jack and, placing his hands under his shoulders, pulled him along to the furthest part of the carriage. There he handcuffed his wrists to a metal pole.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ‘DO YOU HAVE to handcuff Jack like that?’ Millie asked in a small voice as the nurse escorted her and Rob back onto the railway track.

  ‘I’m afraid so, pet. Honestly. He’s safer that way.’

  ‘And what about the other man? Why is he tied up?’

  ‘Because if we don’t, he harms himself. You may have noticed that the skin around his eyes is deeply scratched. If his hands are free, he tears at his eyelids with his nails.’

  ‘What’s wrong with his eyes?’ Rob asked. ‘Why aren’t they bandaged up like some of the soldiers on the train?’

  ‘The other soldiers were caught in a gas attack,’ said the nurse. ‘It would have come over before they had time to get their gas masks on. Their sight has been damaged.’ She showed them her blistered hands. ‘The Germans are using different types of gas – it burns everything it touches. Medical staff have to be careful when dressing their wounds.’

  ‘That’s not fair,’ said Millie. ‘Gassing people is a nasty thing to do. The Germans must be cruel people.’

  ‘Our side are using it too,’ the nurse said in a quiet voice.

  ‘Oh!’ Millie became silent.

  Rob reached out and took her hand. ‘But that soldier hasn�
��t been gassed, has he?’ he asked the nurse.

  ‘I don’t think there is anything wrong with Private Ames’s actual eyesight,’ she replied. ‘His condition is that he’s unable to open his eyelids.’

  Millie opened and closed her eyes several times. ‘How can someone not open their eyes?’

  ‘The doctors suspect he’s in such deep shock that his eyelids are stuck shut.’

  In all his reading of war books and listening to his dad’s stories Rob had never heard of anything like this. ‘What would cause someone’s eyelids to stay stuck shut?’

  ‘Maybe it was what he saw.’ The nurse looked at Rob and then at Millie. ‘If both of you walked through the train, then you’ve an idea of how bad the battlefields can be. But look,’ she said, ‘the engine driver is signalling to us. I expect he wants to restart the train so we can get on our way.’

  ‘There’s Farmer Gordon,’ said Millie. She waved her hand. ‘I’ll go and say hello.’

  As she ran ahead, Rob turned to the nurse and said, ‘What did that soldier see that would make him never want to open his eyes again?’

  The nurse shook her head.

  ‘Please,’ said Rob. ‘I’d like to know. As soon as I’m old enough I’ll be called up and I need to be prepared.’

  She looked at him for a moment. ‘In that case I’ll tell you, in the hope that it makes you not rush to enlist. If your soldier father has gone missing, then your mother needs you more than ever. You’ll have to be a father to your sister until such time as you find out what has happened to your own.’ She pointed to where Millie was standing with the farmer and the engine driver and the captain who had taken the gun from Jack Otterby.

  ‘Please tell me,’ said Rob.

  ‘There are boys almost as young as you out there,’ said the nurse. ‘Ones who lied about their age because they thought that fighting a war would be exciting – a glorious game – and they’d go away with their friends and come home covered in glory. But it is truly awful. There are lice and flies in the trenches, and rats: bloated, filthy creatures. There are no proper lavatories and the food is often bad. The shells churn up the ground and the poor horses flounder in the mud and drown – sometimes soldiers go under too. The bombardment never stops, and the noise of the explosions going on and on, day and night, drives some soldiers crazy. They get confused; everything gets mixed up inside their head. They never know when they might be attacked or gas might drift across. There’s constant sniper fire picking off those who forget to keep their head down – we lose quite a number of our new recruits that way. Like most of the men, our soldier, Private Ames, was under an enormous amount of stress. Then there was some action where he witnessed complete carnage and lost every one of his friends. He told me that he closed his eyes because he couldn’t bear to watch his comrades being killed, and when he tried to open them again, he couldn’t do it. He was in the midst of the worst advance movement of the war so far, a terrible battle near the Somme.’

  The Somme!

  Rob gasped.

  The nurse put her hand to her mouth. ‘I’m so sorry! I forgot. That’s where your father was stationed.’

  They both glanced towards Millie, glad that she was too far away to hear their conversation. The nurse placed her finger over her lips.

  ‘I won’t say anything,’ said Rob. He realized that he had to keep that information to himself. He mustn’t tell Millie . . . or his mother. ‘Can’t the doctors do anything for Private Ames?’

  ‘Sometimes the soldiers become unwell in their minds. It’s not only their bodies that are damaged in war. Bert and I have spent time talking to both soldiers in the last carriage, and that seems to help, but they need special doctors. I believe they’ve got a psychiatric unit near Edinburgh where the therapy concentrates on soldiers’ minds.’

  Rob knew that people got sick in their heads. His granddad had lived with them until he died. In his old age he did odd things, getting up in the middle of the night thinking it was daytime. Then there was the postmistress’s daughter, Annie, who helped in the school, giving out pencils and tidying up. She was twenty-two, but inside her head she was younger than Millie. But it wasn’t the same for Private Ames and Jack. They’d been fine before they’d gone into battle.

  ‘Kindness is important; empathy is what they need – but there’s no time for that on the battlefield. And army officers can’t afford to appear weak, else there would be no soldiers willing to fight.’

  Rob looked to where the captain was standing chatting to the engine driver. ‘Captain Morrison is kind,’ he said. ‘He took the gun from Jack and didn’t say anything. He could have put him on a charge.’

  ‘Captain Morrison has a son the same age as Jack fighting on the Front Line. He is more sympathetic to the men’s fears than a lot of other officers.’

  Captain Morrison noticed them approaching. He broke off his conversation to come and speak to them. ‘I’d like a word with you, young man. Your sister was in extreme danger earlier.’

  ‘I’m sorry we caused so much trouble,’ Rob said. ‘Millie’s not to blame for what happened. She was only doing what I asked her to do. I told her to get on the train when no one was looking and try to find out anything she could about the Border Guards. It was my fault that Jack mistook her for a German spy and—’

  ‘All right. All right.’ Captain Morrison held up his hand. ‘Apology accepted. I’m given to understand that you are trying to trace your father who is missing in the war?’

  ‘Yes, sir, we are.’

  ‘I’m guessing your mother does not know that you and your sister left home to go off on an adventure at half past five in the morning?’

  Rob’s heart flipped in alarm. ‘No, sir, she does not.’

  ‘I’m further guessing that you’d prefer that she was not informed.’

  Rob looked pleadingly at the nurse and then at the captain. ‘Mother has been unwell since the telegram arrived, sir. I don’t want her to have any more worry.’

  ‘I see.’ The captain studied Rob. ‘I’ll make a pact with you. I will say nothing to anyone regarding the incident on the train, and I will further instruct all personnel involved to remain silent, on condition that you and your sister do likewise.’

  Rob nodded. ‘Yes, sir,’ he said in relief.

  ‘I also do not want you to speak of what you saw as you went through the carriages. The condition of wounded soldiers is classified information.’

  ‘I understand, sir.’

  ‘I hope you do. Even though Private Otterby is having delusions and exhibiting signs of paranoia, he is in fact correct when he says there are German spies around. Any information concerning wounded men and battle conditions would be of great use to the enemy. You must remain silent on this subject.’

  ‘I will say nothing about the soldiers on the train,’ Rob promised, ‘and neither will Millie. You can rely on us.’

  ‘That will not be an easy thing for either of you,’ said the captain.

  ‘If I may make a suggestion, Captain Morrison?’ asked the nurse.

  ‘Indeed, yes, Nurse Evans.’

  ‘I am from a rural area where everyone knows the business of everyone else. With us stopping to take on water, it won’t be any secret that a hospital train passed this way. It might be best if the children are allowed to say that they saw the train and waved to the men, but leave out the part where they actually got on.’

  ‘Excellent idea,’ the captain agreed. ‘Especially as it looks as if this will be a regular stop for future trains. The engine driver says he’ll file a report advising that a water tank with a mechanical hose system be constructed here.’ He took a notebook out of his pocket and gave it to Rob. ‘Write your father’s details and your home address and I’ll make such enquiries as I can for you.’

  ‘Thank you, sir,’ said Rob, jotting them down before handing back the notebook.

  Captain Morrison looked at him. ‘I suppose I’ll see you again at some point, but you must give me your word
that neither you nor your sister will ever attempt to board a hospital train again.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Rob. ‘I do.’ He gave the captain his best salute, exactly as his father had shown him.

  Captain Morrison returned the salute and went up the steps and onto the train.

  ‘So every hospital train on its way to Edinburgh will stop here!’ Rob said to Nurse Evans.

  ‘It would seem so. But you mind what you promised the captain,’ she warned him. ‘You’ll never get on the train again.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Rob, ‘but you’ll be on the train, won’t you?’

  ‘I expect so, but in time there may be more going up the line and I can’t be on each one. You do appreciate after what you’ve learned today . . . it’s not very likely that there will be anyone on the trains who’d have information about your father?’

  Rob felt tears building behind his eyes. ‘It’s completely hopeless, isn’t it?’

  ‘No,’ the nurse replied, ‘I wouldn’t say that. I’ve seen men recover from the most grievous wounds. Nursed a soldier through the night, never expecting him to see another dawn, and then he sits up in bed and eats a full breakfast. So I never say anything is hopeless.’

  ‘What should I hope for, then?’

  ‘That I cannot tell you. But know this: today you met a nurse called Ethel Evans, and for as long as I’m detailed duty on this hospital train run, I will check through the carriages on the way north. If there is any news of your father, I’ll give a signal from one of the carriage windows. That’s the best I can do.’

  The train whistle sounded.

  ‘Looks like we’re going.’ To Rob’s embarrassment, before getting on the train Nurse Ethel Evans gave him a quick hug. ‘Take care of your mother,’ she told him. ‘And your sister.’

  Rob went to join Millie, who was now genuinely gathering wild flowers.

  ‘I’ll bring these to Mummy,’ she said. ‘She likes flowers. And if she’s up when we get home, then we can say that’s why we went out this morning.’