"Aye, aye, sir," said the guard on the seat at the back.
"Very well then, go ahead, and good luck go with you!"
The gates were thrown open and the van rolled out into the half-deserted street.
"Now come with me," cried Walworth, "and see if the carriage is at the other door."
We went inside, passed through the house, and out to the front. Yes! The peculiar-shaped hospital car, with the door opening at the end to admit the stretcher, was already pacing up and down. By this time I could do nothing, my teeth were chattering in my head with simple terror.
"Come, come," said Walworth, observing my condition, "you mustn't let yourself go like this. Let me give you a drop of spirit."
He took a flask from his pocket and poured me out half a tumbler of whiskey. I drank it off neat and, I am prepared to assert, did not taste it any more than if it had been so much water. He offered a little to Janet, who sat in the corner in a listening attitude, and when she refused it, screwed on the top again and replaced it in his pocket.
Again we sat in dumb, almost terrified expectancy. Times out of number I thought I heard the van roll into the yard, and sprang to my feet, only to find that it was some cart passing in the street. Its non-arrival in the time we had given it found me almost too frightened to think coherently. I conjured up all sorts of catastrophes in my mind. I saw the horses fall, the driver tumble from his box, I saw our policemen suspected and the plot found out. Then suddenly in the middle of it all I heard the roll of wheels, they came closer and closer, then they stopped, the gates were thrown open, and a second or two later the van rolled into the yard. Before I could have counted ten the guard was down from his perch, the gates were closed again, the door of the van was opened, and Alie ran down the steps. Then, forgetting those about us, I rushed out and took her in my arms. But Walworth would have no delay.
"Come inside quickly," he said. "There is not a second to lose! They may be after us already!"
We followed him into the house, and then for the first time I saw that Alie had dressed herself in the van for the part she had to play. Throwing herself down upon the stretcher, she pulled the coverlet across her, donned a wig with corkscrew curls, drew a veil over her face, and announced herself ready. Janet picked up her reticule, smelling salts, shawls, fans, etc.; the maid brought an armful of rugs; I took one end of the stretcher, Walworth the other, and so we went down the steps to the carriage. Then the invalid was hoisted in, Janet and I stepped in and seated ourselves beside her, Walworth sprang onto the box beside the coachman, and away we went for Waterloo as fast as our spirited horse could trot.