Chapter 4

A distant whistle was heard from the station platform. Lady Hatt looked down the tracks and saw an engine coming. "Gordon." she whispered to herself. And in a few moments, Gordon came rolling into the platform.

The carriage door opened and out walked a man wearing a top hat, and a posh suit. In his hand was a suitcase and a violin case. In fact, the he looked quite like Sir Topham Hatt with the only exception being the size of his belly!

"Theodore." Lady Hatt greeted. Theodore bowed slightly and took off his hat. "Good day." he replied. Gordon looked over at them, not saying anything.

"Well," Theodore began. "I've heard everything. Topham went out to find the engine and his car was found on the back road." Then he walked over to the door of Topham's office. He inserted a key and walked on in.

"Apparently some of his plans to find the engine were hidden in that safe in the back of his room." Theodore continued as he flipped the light switch, turning the light's on in the office. Then he walked to a large safe in the back corner of the room. "He never gave out the combination, not even to me." Lady Hatt explained. Theodore pulled a small piece of paper out his wallet which had some numbers on it. "Except to me." he said as he started spinning the dial on it.

"And open!" he exclaimed as the safe opened. But when it was opened fully, a surprise was in store for them.

"IT'S EMPTY!" Lady Hatt exclaimed sorrowfully. Theodore was just as equally shocked. "That's odd! Someone must have broken in!" he thought. The two locked the office and walked outside.

"I don't believe it..." Lady Hatt sighed, nearly crying. Theodore put his arm on her shoulder. "It's all right. We'll find it out soon enough..." Gordon, who was still at the platform, couldn't help but overhear their little problem.

"Ma-am, I couldn't help but overhear your mishap, but there is something I need to tell you." Lady Hatt and Theodore stopped and looked at him. "Go ahead, Gordon." Lady Hatt requested. "Anyway, some of the engines and I were talking about The Fat Controller's vanishing and we came to a conclusion; You see, since Gary wanted to find Benjamin, like the Fat Controller and since the Fat Controller said he'd find him first Gary became jealous. If The Fat Controller didn't go on the search then Gary could find him without any trouble." Lady Hatt's eyes widened while Theodore looked shocked. "Thank you Gordon." Lady Hatt said as she walked off with Theodore.

"Now it all makes sense." Lady Hatt told Theodore. "If Topham didn't couldn't find the engine, then that would leave Gary to get it." Theodore nodded. "Well, we can discuss this at dinner." he said as he signalled a bus over to him. "I'll meat you at the pub in an hour after I check into my hotel room." He waved goodbye as he got on the bus and then drove away.

"Well that was useless." Gary said to Buck as they drove down a small, dirt road. Buck groaned. "That stupid Thin Controller didn't help us at all. All he said was 'that the documents are secret." Gary rolled his eyes. "Ya." Then they drove up to a small, wooden shack. Gary parked Buck and walked up to the door. "Yell if anyone comes." he ordered. Buck gave him a simple "Yup."

"Yo, Fatty!" Gary shouted as he walked in. A man, tied to a chair made a moaning noise. "Let me go!" the man shouted. Gary stamped his foot on the floor. "NO!" he thundered. "Sir Topham Hatt, you will not leave until I find that engine!" Sir Topham Hatt said nothing. Gary looked at him. "So, now that I have your documents, is there anything else you'd like?" he asked. Sir Topham Hatt looked him in the eyes. "Tell me why you want to use Benjamin's powers to take over Sodor." he demanded. Gary stopped what he was doing and turned around.

"You wanna know?" he asked. Topham nodded his head, though the way he was positioned, it was quite tough. "Fine." Gary said. "My great, great, great, great grandfather was one of Sodor's first railway workers. He worked next to your great, great, great, great grandfather. And when the manager was retiring, he picked your grandfather to take over. That made your family rich and my family has always been poor. I came over here from the States to get revenge...which I will." Sir Topham Hatt's eyes were wide open. "Bye." Gary said as he walked out the door and out to Buck.

"C'mon." he said. "We're going to go and get some work done." Buck seemed surprised. "Like what?" he pondered out loud. "The Thin Controller's place. I need those documents."