We were nearing the Dutch coast and I was considering how to avoid Lassen on landing, when there was the very dickens of an explosion. As if the lid of hell itself had lifted!
What happened I only learnt afterwards, for the next thing I knew was that I was lying in bed somewhere, with a grave-eyed nurse bending over me.
"Herr Lassen!" Just a whisper. After a pause the name was repeated with slightly more solicitous emphasis.
I was too weak and exhausted to reply or feel either surprise or curiosity at the mistake about my name; and with a sigh of utter weariness I closed my eyes and fell asleep. When I woke it was in the dead stillness of the night.
I was far less exhausted and my mind was beginning to work again. I was lying alone in a small bare-walled room, lighted by one carefully shaded electric light. There were two other beds in the room, both unoccupied; and I was not too dazed to understand that it was a hospital ward. Then I remembered the nurse had addressed me as "Herr Lassen"; and was puzzling over the mistake when the remembrance of Nessa and her peril flashed across my mind and stirred a confused jangle of disturbing thoughts.
I was still too weak to clear the tangle then, however, and fell asleep again, and did not wake until the morning.
I was much better and the nurse was very pleased at my improvement. "You will soon be yourself again," she said, speaking German with a quaint accent. "You were so exhausted that at one time we feared you would not recover from the shock."
"You are very good," I murmured, with a feeble smile.
"Do you think you could eat some solid food? The doctor said you could have some when you recovered consciousness."
"Where am I?" I asked after thanking her.