It struck her that Billy was surprised.
"Because—" She stopped there. She couldn't say to him, "I want to know whether John left him dead or alive."
"He was dead all right." Sutton's voice came up slow and muffled out of his meditation.
It was all right. She might have known. She might have known. Vaguely for a moment she wondered why Billy had come for her and not John; then she was frightened.
"Billy—John isn't hurt, is he?"
"No. Rather not. A bit done up. I made him go and lie down…. Look here, we must get out of this."
* * * * *
The McClane Corps were gathered on their side of the messroom. They greeted her with shouts of joy, but their eyes looked at her queerly, as if they knew something dreadful had happened to her.
"You should have stood in with us, Charlotte," Mrs. Rankin was saying.
"Then you wouldn't get mislaid among the shells." She was whispering.
"Dr. McClane, if you took Charlotte out among the shells, would you run
away and leave her there?"
"I'd try not to."