The Apple Spy by Terry Deary Page B

to load their rifles as they ran. They dashed through the station entrance and by the time I got there the foreign couple had their hands in the air and three rifles were pointed at their heads.
    Constable Grieve was gasping for breath, wheezing like the express train that was huffing down the line. The policeman couldn’t speak. So I spoke for him. ‘We arrest you in the name of the law.’

    Jamie grinned at me. ‘I’ve always wanted to say that.’
    We were so pleased with ourselves. We would be on the newsreel at Buckie cinema next week. We had saved Britain from these evil Nazi spies, I thought.
    But I was wrong.
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    Chapter 5
    Smoke and signals
    As the two spies were led away the express train hissed, clanked, roared, spat, screeched, shuddered, groaned and rumbled its way to the platform in a cloud of steam and smoke.
    Constable Grieve would call the army to take the foreign couple away and question them. I didn’t follow. I looked down the platform as the train crunched to a halt. No one got off the train today – not many people came to Portgordon. The train guard stepped off the last coach with whistles and flags.
    The sea breeze blew away the steam cloud and I saw something that made my heart stop as still as the train. A man was walking along the track towards the train. He walked up the ramp at the end of the platform, opened a carriage door and climbed in.

    He was thirty yards away from me but I was sure I had seen the white salt-stains on his trousers.
    â€˜Jamie!’ I cried after my brother who was following the arrested spies. At that moment the engine gave off a whistle to warn everyone to stand clear.
    â€˜Jamie!’ But the screaming of the slipping wheels drowned my voice.
    The guard folded the green flag he’d been waving and climbed aboard the guard van at the end. The train began to move. I ran alongside, tore open a carriage door and pulled myself in.
    They say that twins can ‘talk’ without speaking. They send invisible messages from their brains – a bit like wireless waves. Jamie swears he didn’t hear me cry out. Yet he had stopped and turned around at the station entrance to look for me. He ran back just in time to see me jump on board.
    He didn’t know where I was going or why. I didn’t even know that myself. But he ran alongside the train and caught it as the guard’s van at the end went past. There was no door to open on the van platform. Just a handrail. My brother caught hold and the speed lifted him off his feet.
    I leaned out and watched as he fell back. His feet struck the last few inches of Portgordon platform and he seemed to bounce up like a ball. The wind dragged at him and pulled him backwards, his grip slipping off the rail. The engine rushed past the signal tower at the side of the track. If Jamie’s struggling body hit that he’d be crushed. If he let go he’d fall under the back wheels of the van.

    Then I saw a large hand reach from the van and grasp Jamie’s arm. The guard gave a strong tug and Jamie was pulled to safety a moment before the van reached the signal tower.
    If he’d been killed with that crazy jump it would have served him right. But I was still pleased to know I wasn’t alone on the train.
    I just didn’t know what to do next.
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    Chapter 6
    Tickets and tracks
    I knew I had to follow the man with the sea-water legs. He had to be a spy like the other two. I had to find him then tell someone.
    The express train had ten carriages with a corridor that ran from the engine at the front to the guard’s van at the back. Every carriage had about twenty compartments with six seats in each.
    The first thing I had to do was find the spy. He couldn’t escape until the train stopped. Then I’d have the railway police – and Jamie – to help me. I wasn’t afraid. I should have been.
    I decided to start at the front. I stared into each compartment.