I was limping by that time, and there were cold chills running up and down my spine, but Tish was quite calm. And just then there was a terrific outburst of noise, whistles and sirens of all sorts, and a man walking near us suddenly began to run and dived into a doorway.
“Air raid,” said Tish calmly, and walked on. I clutched at her arm, but she shook me off.
“Tish!” I begged.
“Don’t be a craven, Lizzie,” she said. “Statistics show that the percentage of mortality from these things is considerably less than from mumps, and not to be compared with riding in an elevator or with the perils of maternity.”
All sorts of people were running madly by that time, and suddenly disappearing, and a man with a bird cage in his hand bumped flat into me and knocked me down. Tish, however, had moved on without noticing, and when I caught up to her she was standing beside a wide door which was open, staring in.
“This is the place,” she said. And just then half a dozen men poured out through the doorway and ran along the street. Tish drew a long breath.
“You see?” she said. “Providence watches over those whose motives are pure, even if compelled to certain methods——”
There was a terrible crash at that moment down the street, followed by glass falling all round us.
“——which are not entirely ethical,” Tish continued calmly. “We might as well go inside, Lizzie. They may drop another, and we shall never have such a chance again.”
“I can’t walk, Tish,” I said in a quavering voice. “My knees are bending backward.”