'You a policeman?' he said.

'Sworn as a detective with the Railway force. How do you know?'

He pointed at the book that was sticking out of my side pocket: I put my hand to it, and saw that the words 'Police Manual', written in gold, could be made out.

As I closed on the porter, I could see that there wasn't much difference in width between his head and his neck. It was as though his neck just kept going up through his stand- up collar until it met his fair hair. My guess was that he had had some disease, and been growing in the wrong way ever since; he looked like a sort of ghostly worm. He wore the uniform of a platform porter, with the same low cap, but there was no company badge. Even the telegraph boy in the station had sported a badge, but they couldn't run to one for Lost-Luggage Porter.

The porter showed me the box. Looking inside, I read the familiar words: 'The Railway Magazine, 6d'. On the topmost one, there was a picture of an express inside a little circle as if seen through the wrong end of a telescope. I was glad to have them back, though they brought back sad memories – which was why I'd put off collecting them. Over the years since schooldays I'd supposed the purchase of each one to be a milestone on the way to the job of engine driver, but it would be a miracle if I ever attained that goal, after what had happened at the back end of 1905, in the Sowerby Bridge engine shed at Halifax.

'Miscellaneous, eh?' I said, looking down at the magazines.

The lost-luggage porter nodded, or shook his head; I couldn't really tell.

'All items are entered by Mr Parkinson,' he said presently, 'and he is very fond of that word.'

'Do you have the portmanteau they came in?' I asked.

'Reckon so' said the porter, and he moved deeper into the maze of shelves, giving me a clearer view of the one containing the books. Each volume was inside its own little tin coffin, with a number chalked on the side. I looked into the first of the tins: A History of Hampton Court Palace. The second one I saw held Every Man his Own Cattle Doctor.