I drove the car with Fischer at my side, and by his instructions, Nessa lay on the bottom of the tonneau which was constructed much like that of the farmer's I had mended at Osnabrück. She was hidden under a rug and a tarpaulin, and he told her to cover up even her head if any one spoke to us on the way.
We had some dozen miles to run, and for the greater part of the way no one attempted to interfere with us. The old fellow seemed to be hugely pleased by the way I handled the ramshackle machine; and even more so when I explained the reason of some of the queer noises and jumps which the engine developed. "You're the man for us!" he exclaimed more than once.
When we reached the outskirts of a village close to the frontier, he bent over and told Nessa to hide herself completely. "We shall be questioned here; but it won't matter. Go slow for a bit," he added to me; "and pull up at once if they order us."
The village was full of soldiers, and I began to realize in earnest then the difficulties of our escaping without his help. We were pulled up twice in the village, but allowed to proceed the moment he was recognized and produced some authority he had.
After we left the village behind us there were plenty of people, both men and women, all with their faces turned frontierwards. "What are all these doing?" I asked.
"Crumb-hunters, we call 'em." Descriptive enough, too; and he told me they were out in all weathers to pick up any trifles from the Dutch side, and that passes were given to them for the purpose.
"And what about the Dutch guards?"
"Getting fat on it," replied Fischer, rubbing his palm and then putting a finger to the side of his nose. "Bleed us to a tune, too. Their people try to stop it; change the men often enough; but it only means that Peter gets a greasy palm instead of Paul. We turn off into the next lane on the right: it runs across the frontier; the Pike Wood's just there; but you'll have to stop a little short of it to turn the car."
We ran about half a mile along the lane to the spot where I turned and we all got out. He led the way across a field or two, and, as we were rather before our time—nine o'clock—he posted us at a point in the thicket from which we could see the guards at the gate which marked the boundary on the German side, and then left us.
I was beginning to get a little excited by that time, but Nessa seemed quite unmoved, except that she shivered once or twice, for the night air had a nip in it. Whether she persisted in her intention not to go without me, I could not say. She had heard me tell old Fischer that I wasn't going; but she maintained a sphinxlike silence all the time he was away.