"Oh, Jack! And they were crowded with people!"
"We can't do anything to help, and we'd better think of ourselves," and to distract her thoughts from the horrors of the train wreck I told her the reasons against venturing into Osnabrück.
"I've been thinking the same. Surely there's only one thing to do?"
"Well?"
"The 'third wheel', of course. It's been in my mind from the very moment of the collision. I don't know how it was, but that rushed into my head instantly; and when you weren't hurt, I could think of nothing but that;" and she pointed to the suit case.
"It was the last word you spoke before fainting."
"And the first when I came round. I was so thankful when I saw you'd brought it away all right. I didn't care after that. You didn't seem really hurt; only shaken; I knew I should be all right soon; and I felt a sort of certainty that the third wheel would carry us into safety. Hadn't we better go?"
"Yes, if you feel fit to do a few miles before daylight?"
"You'll soon see that, if you'll go to your own room and change and leave me to do the same."
My "room" was the back of the shed outside, and I lost no time in getting off my own clothes and putting on the workman's dress over what my flying friend had called the "tummy pad." Then I lit up and waited, thinking what a plucky soul Nessa was, until she called to me.