by Ernest Bramah
Classic mysteryNo. 2471 hr 7 minMax Carrados
It begins with Max Carrados greeting his friend Carlyle at the door and remarking that he has a mystery about him somewhere. He can hear it in the man's step. The mystery is a railway disaster. A signal was passed at danger on a stretch of suburban line, two trains met, and a great many people are dead. The signalman swears on everything he has that the light was green when the express went through. Everybody accepts that he is either lying to save himself or was too drunk to know, and the official inquiry is about to decide which. His career, and very probably his liberty, ends either way. Carrados has never seen a signal light in his life. He is also not satisfied that those are the only two possibilities. What follows is one of the most quietly technical stories Ernest Bramah ever wrote, and one of the coldest endings in Edwardian detective fiction. There is no arrest and no struggle. A man stands up, a door closes, and Carlyle is left with the uncomfortable feeling that he ought to have done something and cannot think what. FOR LISTENERS This is a complete, unabridged reading of The Knight's Cross Signal Problem by Ernest Bramah, collected in Max Carrados (1914) and now in the public domain. Every word is the author's own. Part of The Midnight Archive: three nights of classics every week, alongside four original Nocturnal Tales mysteries. A NOTE ON THIS RECORDING Published in 1914, this story reflects the attitudes of its time, including toward empire and race. We present it unaltered, as we do every text in the Archive. YOU CHOOSE WHAT'S NEXT The Archive is deep — more Max Carrados? Loveday Brooke? Violet Strange? Sherlock Holmes? Father Brown? Lady Molly? Raffles? Dr Thorndyke? Arsène Lupin? Vote in the poll attached to this episode, or tell us in the comments which classic you want to hear by lamplight. Carrados is not a policeman, and he decides for himself how this one ends. Did he have the right to settle it the way he does? CHAPTERS 00:00 - Introduction 01:58 - Part One 16:36 - Part Two 32:06 - Part Three 48:00 - Part Four SUPPORT & LISTENING OPTIONS ABOUT THIS RECORDING The Knight's Cross Signal Problem by Ernest Bramah (1914) is in the public domain. This recording is the complete, unabridged original text. Narration and production Nocturnal Tales. CREDITS Narrated and produced by Nocturnal Tales. Story by Ernest Bramah (public domain). TAGS / KEYWORDS ernest bramah audiobook, max carrados audiobook, the knight's cross signal problem audiobook, max carrados 1914 collection, blind detective mystery, railway disaster mystery, train crash detective story, edwardian london mystery, scientific detective fiction, classic detective story audiobook, public domain audiobook, unabridged classic mystery HASHTAGS
Free to listen, in full, with no account and no password. Your place is remembered in this browser, so you can stop and come back.
Every story on Nocturnal Tales is free, and stays free. Listeners who choose to give are the reason there is a new one tomorrow.
This is our work and what we live on: two of us, writing and producing a story every night. Giving here goes straight to us, rather than through a platform that can change its mind overnight. Why donations are important.
or
Give with PayPalPayPal opens in a new page. Monthly support is easiest to manage through the card option.
No story is ever locked. Payment is handled securely by Stripe — we never see your card details. You can change or cancel your support at any time, from this page, with no explanation needed.
Tell us what you made of this one. No account and no password — just a name.
Hercule Poirot
New Orleans, the spring of nineteen thirty-three. There are certain cities which, even before one has committed a crime in them, seem already to know the secret. Arthur and the Belgian Detective have come for a rest.
1 hr 14 minNo. 248
A. J. Raffles
Two cases tonight from the gentleman thief who has drawn more requests than anybody else in the Archive. WILFUL MURDER is the darkest thing in the whole collection. Bunny warns us at the outset that most of their robberies will not bear telling at length.
by E. W. Hornung
1 hr 13 minNo. 246
Hercule Poirot
Mexico City, the summer of nineteen twenty-eight. A banquet is given for the man who is about to become President — a soldier who won a civil war, lost an arm doing it, and has spent the years since collecting enemies with the same efficiency he once collected territory.
1 hr 20 minNo. 245
Loveday Brooke
Somebody has got hold of Miss Loveday Brooke's private address, which she had given strict orders was to be handed to nobody at all. Her holiday lasts precisely as long as it takes to read the note.
by Catherine Louisa Pirkis
55 minNo. 244