We know that the best laid schemes both of mice and men are apt to go wrong, but on this occasion Emmeline’s really seemed as though they were going to be the exception to prove the rule. The party arrived at the station without any adventures; Diamond Jubilee’s ticket cost only five-pence halfpenny; without any difficulty she found an empty compartment for him, and an almost empty one next door to it for herself and the twins; last, but not least, they met no acquaintances at the station, so that although one or two porters stared at seeing Emmeline’s interest in such a dirty, ragged, and altogether disreputable little street-arab as Diamond Jubilee, nobody ventured to ask any awkward questions.
It was with a piece of stupidity on Diamond Jubilee’s part that the tide of luck seemed to turn. Emmeline had done her best to impress on him that he must get out of the train as soon as he heard the porters shouting ‘Chudstone,’ but, in spite of her instructions, he as nearly as possible let himself be carried on. She had not meant to appear to have anything to do with him at Chudstone, where they were quite likely to be recognised, but in desperation she was obliged to tell the porter that there was a little boy in the next carriage who wanted to get out. On the whole, she thought that course better than to open the door herself and bid him get out.
The man’s look of suspicion, when he opened the door and saw Diamond Jubilee calmly staring out of the opposite window, was only too obvious.
‘Where’s your ticket?’ he demanded sharply.
The fact that Diamond Jubilee happened to have mislaid it did not mend matters. The porter became abusive, and Emmeline was at her wits’ end what to do, between her fear lest, if she stayed to see the end of the fray, her connection with Diamond Jubilee might be suspected, and her conviction that if she left the station without him the chances were that she should lose sight of him altogether.
Luckily, the ticket was discovered underneath the cushion before Emmeline was obliged to come to the rescue, and with an angry injunction from the porter to ‘get out, and not give no more trouble,’ Diamond Jubilee was allowed to go free.
‘Really, I do think you might have managed better,’ Emmeline could not help telling him impatiently when they were safe outside the station. ‘Now, whatever you do, keep well behind us till we are out of the village.’
‘I’m afraid he’s going to turn out a duffer,’ remarked Micky, as Diamond Jubilee obediently fell back.
‘Micky, you mustn’t talk like that,’ said Emmeline, the more severely because at the bottom of her heart she could not help fearing that there might be some truth in what he said.