It was such a devil of a mess that no amount of wit-racking suggested a way out which did not involve a heap of delay and trouble. But the knot was cut nevertheless, in the most unexpected fashion.
We were nearing Osnabrück, running at some thirty or forty miles an hour, when the engine whistled furiously, and we were far enough in the front of the train to feel the grinding of the brakes quickly applied. Before they could do much to reduce the speed, however, there was a tremendous crash, the heavy carriage collapsed like a card house, the lights were extinguished, and the coach rocked a moment, seemed to rear right up, and then toppled over on its side.
I was flung half a dozen ways at once; against the opposite side of the compartment, then back again and next down, so that I lay sprawling across the door. Something hit me a smack on the head and something else came floundering down on top of me, amid a shower of splintered glass and other fragments.
The "something else" turned out to be Nessa as I discovered when I called out to her in deadly fear that she had been killed. Thank Heaven we were both unhurt, save for the few bruises and slight cuts caused by the shuttlecock shaking we had experienced.
We owed our escape to the fact that we had been lying with our legs up. The result to our two guards showed that. They had been pinned down and lay groaning and moaning piteously in desperate agony.
Nessa was too overwhelmed by the shock to be able to move for a time. But she was awfully brave; not a cry had escaped her lips; and although she was trembling so that she could scarcely speak, she assured me she was not hurt in the least. "I shall be all right in a moment, Jack. I'm not hurt. I was afraid you were killed," she stammered.
It was then I found that the first something which had hit me was my suit case; and never was anything more welcome. There was a flask of brandy in it and a flash lamp, and I managed to get them both. The spirit soon revived us, and I flashed the light round the compartment and took my bearings.
It was a gruesome sight. The two unfortunate soldiers were unconscious; fearfully injured, bleeding terribly, and in such a mess as made one think of the trenches. The carriage lay on its side and the corridor over our heads. That offered the only way of escape, and to reach it I had to stand on the men's bodies. By this means I succeeded in getting a grip on the side of the doorway opening into the corridor. I pulled myself up and scrambled through the opening. Everything was smashed to splinters; there was an ominous smell of gas; part of the train was already on fire, the flames lighting up the weirdly awful scene; and the wind was blowing them right down on our carriage. There wasn't a second to lose if we were not to be roasted alive.
Lying at full length to get a purchase for my feet among some of the wreckage, I leant down to help Nessa out.
She kept her head splendidly. She had presence of mind to remember the suit case, handed it up to me, caught my hand, and I swung her up beside me. It was touch and go even then, for the flames leapt the intervening space at that moment and a flare of gas soon set everything in a blaze.