“The railroad is a few miles away,” I added. “We should drive to the tracks and jump on the next train. When the Japanese find the vehicle and figure out what happened, they’ll stop looking here. Van der Meer will be safe.”
A moment of silence ensued. “You’re right,” he said softly. “We have no choice.”
“And we have to hurry,” Sir Gregory said. “Before the Japanese find us here.”
Thomas gave the midwife some money and then some instructions. She nodded throughout the discussion, and seemed to assure him that his friend would be all right. We each said our goodbyes, both to Van der Meer and the midwife. Thomas hugged his friend, lingering longer than he should have.
“Hang in there,” he whispered. “Everything will be all right. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Thomas, we have to go,” I reminded him.
He took a deep breath and grasped Van der Meer’s hand, holding it tightly, as if to send some secret signal.
“Thomas,” Lady Jane urged. “Come on.”
I had to ease him away. Gently, taking his shoulders, and turning him to the door. When he reached the exit, he cast one last look at his friend, as if to etch his features in his memory. Then he nodded his thanks to Mita. We returned to the truck and left, driving slowly. When we reached the main road we traveled a few miles more past the spot where we had previously stopped. We found another dirt road that brought us farther, closer to where I suspected the railroad was. Ten minutes later I directed Thomas to stop, and he guided the truck into a grove of trees and turned off the engine.
"The railroad tracks should be cut into the mountainside. But I don’t know at what elevation," I said. “Just on the other side of this hill.”
It didn’t seem as if we would ever escape. If Lady Jane’s picture had made it to a general store in a small mountain village a hundred miles from Batavia, it was posted everywhere.
I knew the climb over the hill would be difficult, especially considering how tiring our journey had already been. I hoped I could make it. We had covered a lot of territory: Singapore, Sumatra, and Batavia. Now we moved relentlessly towards Surabaya, and hopefully Surabaya led to London.
We covered the truck with tree limbs and broad leaves, hiding it as best we could. After we had distanced ourselves from the vehicle, traveling a mile or so, we paused to eat. The cheese, bananas, and pineapple juice that had satisfied us at breakfast worked just as well for dinner. After completing our meal and resting a bit, we continued.
It was a wearying trek. The hill was much steeper than observation suggested. The vegetation was thicker, the incline more pronounced, and the altitude higher than we had thought. I had difficulty breathing before we were half way to the top, and I was embarrassed as the others paused to allow me to catch my breath. We trudged onward, however, and sometime before midnight we reached the railroad tracks.
"We can only board a train if it's traveling slowly," Thomas said. "We'll have to find a curve or incline where the train decreases speed."
We walked down the tracks, which were hugged by trees and shrubs, until we found a bend a mile farther. The tracks led around a steep curve and onto an iron-truss bridge that was about six hundred feet long. Four hundred feet below the bridge lay the rocky floor of a narrow valley. Looking down the steep slope made my knees tremble. I backed away from the edge.
We spent a restless night, hidden among the trees that lined the tracks. It was a ghostly location, by far the most secluded spot we had encountered, and the only sounds we heard were the animal noises that whispered on the southern winds. I was sure snakes slithered through the grass, but I decided not to think about it, trying to rest while the opportunity existed.
We woke at dawn, ate a light breakfast, and discussed our strategy.
"George and I will go down the tracks and wait for a train," Thomas said. "Once we’re sure no troops are on it, we'll jump into the last car. If there are soldiers on it, we'll let it pass. Is that understood?"
We nodded.
"Lady Jane and Sir Gregory will remain hidden until the last car comes into view,” he continued. “If it's safe, we'll signal you. Sir Gregory can lift Lady Jane while we pull her in, then he’ll throw the baggage up and jump in after her. If you don’t see us on the last car, remain hidden."
We carried the knapsacks containing our supplies and moved a half mile around the bend. We waited for a train's arrival. A few hours passed. There were no trains, no people, no animals, just an uneasy silence.
“Thomas, look!” I said. I pointed down the hill. There were six Japanese, weaving through the grass and shrubs.
“Where did they come from?” he asked. “Stay down. Don’t let them see you.”
He motioned down the tracks to Lady Jane and Sir Gregory. Once he had their attention, he pointed downward. When they saw the enemy, they retreated back into the vegetation that lined the hill that the track was carved into.
“Do you think they’re looking for us?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “But they’re certainly looking for something.”
We watched them for fifteen minutes. They were systematically moving through the underbrush, searching. As they completed examining one area, they climbed the hill and continued at a higher plateau. If they proceeded, they would reach us in thirty minutes, but if we weren’t careful, they would see us much sooner.
“What are we going to do?” I asked.
“Maybe we should start moving down the tracks, towards Surabaya. At least we’ll put some distance between them.”
“Thomas, get down. They have binoculars.”
We lay flat against the side of the rails. My heart was thumping into the ground below me. I ventured a peek down the hill. The binoculars were pointed right at me.
“They’ve seen us!” I hissed.
The ground started to rumble; a train was approaching. I looked down the hill. The soldiers were starting to climb. In minutes they would reach us.
“Stay down,” Thomas said. “Let the train pass between us and them. If we try to run now, they’ll shoot us.”
Sir Gregory and Lady Jane remained hidden a few hundred feet down the track. But they could see the soldiers struggling up the hill just as we had. We had little time.
The rumbling of the ground was superseded by chugging of the train’s engine as it gradually approached. The soldiers scrambled up the hill; the train eased down the tracks. It would be a slow motion race. If the train arrived first, we escaped. If the Japanese did, we were dead.
Thomas studied the train. “There are no troops that I can see. It looks like a freight train. Probably bringing supplies to Surabaya.”
“We don’t have any choice,” I said. “The soldiers are only seventy yards away. We have to catch the train.”
As the engine passed, we rose and drew even with the cars. It was traveling slowly but still much faster than I had expected. I began to doubt if I was spry enough to leap on board.
"Run with it," Thomas yelled.
I did as he said but was confused when he ran in the opposite direction, towards the back of the train. I then realized he planned to be on board well before me. He needed time to assess conditions on the boxcar, and to then help me. The second car of the ten-car train had passed me when Thomas reached the last car. He leaped into the open door, holding on to the frame to avoid falling out.
He started throwing out cargo to make room for four people. The car contained burlap bags, contents unknown, which soon lay scattered along the side of the tracks, haphazardly landing wherever they were tossed. There were no Japanese in sight.
I was now even with the last car. I threw our luggage on. Thomas held out his hand. I grasped it and leaped, closing my eyes. I felt myself pulled upward just as the train neared the bend, its brakes screeching in protest.
I heard a rifle shot, and a bullet ricocheted off the railcar, followed by another. The Japanese had climbed the hill. One soldier stood beside the tracks,
rooted to the soil, his rifle aimed at us. Others were getting into position as two Japanese started running down the tracks. As the train slowed even more to maneuver the bend, they might be able to catch us.
"Throw out more bags," Thomas said. "We need more room."
I was winded, breathing heavily from exertion and anxiety, but I helped him toss thirty-pound burlap bags out of the doorway. One broke open and spilled its contents. They were filled with rice, probably destined for the troops.
We continued to discard them until we had enough space. The soldiers fired more shots, most hitting the back of the metal railcar and then bouncing to the ground. Occasionally one pierced the inside of the compartment, a ping followed by the hollow thud of a bullet burrowing into the rice bags.
"We'll make more room later," Thomas said above the noise of the braking train. He pointed ahead to where the bridge was visible. He leaned out of the doorway and waved his arm. Sir Gregory and Lady Jane emerged from the shrubbery and stood poised by the rails, ready to leap aboard.
The train had maneuvered around the bend, the Japanese hidden by the foliage next to the curve in the tracks. Just as the car reached Lady Jane and Sir Gregory, I heard more shots. The two soldiers who chased us were at the edge of the bend, barely visible. One kneeled, his rifle on his shoulder, aiming at the train. The other stood. Lady Jane and Sir Gregory made good targets.
When the boxcar reached them, Sir Gregory threw their bags aboard. The shots continued, and one bullet ricocheted off the edge of our doorframe. Thomas leaned down while I held my arms around his waist and acted as his anchor. He grasped Lady Jane and, with a show of strength that amazed me, flung her into the car like a small child.
She screamed in surprise, landing on her derriere in the narrow space. She looked startled, as if she weren’t sure how she’d arrived there.
The shots continued, ricocheting off the railcar, bullets bouncing in all directions. Puffs of dirt surfaced near Sir Gregory’s feet born by stray bullets, the cinders stinging his legs. The shots were coming closer; the onslaught grew stronger. Sir Gregory ran beside the slowly moving train. Thomas reached down and grabbed his outstretched hands.
"Jump on the count of three," Thomas shouted.
More shots sounded as those firing were joined by their comrades. A half dozen soldiers were now aiming at us. A barrage of bullets bounced off the train, the rail bed, the doorframe; some bullets burrowed into the bags of rice. Leaves and branches of nearby trees split and splintered, bullets tearing them apart.
The bridge was approaching rapidly. Little time remained. We had to get Sir Gregory aboard.
Thomas yelled his count. Sir Gregory leaped, jumping on board just as the ground below him disappeared and the train chugged over the bridge.
Lady Jane's timing was not as perfect. She rose from her sitting position and collided clumsily into her former fiancé.
"Gregory!" she shouted.
Screaming hysterically, she fell from the doorway and plunged towards the valley below.
CHAPTER 40
I lunged towards Lady Jane as she fell from the car, barely catching her leg as she tumbled past me, grabbing her calf and knee with both hands. Her momentum pulled me forward, almost dragging me with her. I managed to wedge one of my legs between the edge of the door and a stack of burlap bags, which kept me anchored in the car.
Thomas reached for her belt but missed. He managed to grasp her other leg near the ankle and then clutched the side of the door frame to prevent us all from falling forward. We held her tentatively, clenching her legs, forming a human chain as she dangled head first from the railcar.
“Sir Gregory! Help us!" I shouted.
I was gasping, struggling to breathe, overwhelmed with excitement and anxiety and exertion. It was difficult to maintain my balance and hold on to her; I struggled to stay in the car and not get pulled out. Every muscle I had strained to hold her. My leg, caught between the bags of rice, was gradually sliding loose, but my arms remained tightly wrapped around her leg. The pulling, burning sensation coursed through my limbs. A sudden ache knifed across my head as I yanked backwards with all the strength I possessed. It resulted in nothing more than a dangerous stalemate as I fought to save Lady Jane.
Thomas held the doorframe with his injured arm and leaned out the exit, his face contorted with pain. His right arm held Lady Jane’s ankle, maintaining her link to life.
I looked out the door, staring at empty sky and open space. We were approaching a mountain face, a smaller sister fading in the distance. Lady Jane’s arms flailed wildly, her head facing the valley floor. Her screams were hideous, a high-pitched wail, eerie and piercing and ripping the heart from all who could hear it. She was losing the battle. Inch by inch, she slid from our grasp.
“Help me!” she screamed.
Sir Gregory moved to Thomas’s side, his arms around his waist. "Just hold on to Jane,” he shouted. “I’ll pull you backwards, and she’ll come into the car with you."
Thomas was tiring. I could see the strain on his face. And I was too.
“I can’t hold her much longer,” he said.
Sir Gregory eased Thomas backwards. “Let go of the doorframe. I’ve got hold of you.”
As Sir Gregory pulled Thomas into the car, they dragged Lady Jane towards them. Thomas now had the use of both hands, and he transferred his hold from her ankle to her knee, securing her foot under his good arm. I assumed the same position. We now held her firmly, even if the majority of her body thrashed in the wind. We had to slowly ease her into the car, gently moving our hands higher on her body: ankle to thigh, thigh to waist.
“Let’s pull her up,” Thomas said.
Lady Jane’s screams echoed through the valley, ricocheting off the mountain walls. The appalling pitch provided an unbearable tale of death and disaster and the minutes that led to it.
Tears welled in my eyes, born by pain and the disaster I couldn’t control. I had to hold on. I just had to. No matter what, I couldn’t let go. I couldn’t let what happened to Maggie happen to Lady Jane.
Thomas and I stood, raising her upward. Once we had her legs in the car, we moved our hold to her thighs. We continued pulling, sliding her in.
“Thomas!” I screamed. “Look!”
The train was approaching the end of the bridge. A tunnel loomed ahead, carved into the mountain. Only inches separated the train from the rock wall.
"Pull!" Thomas bellowed. “Hurry.”
We jerked backward, using all the space available and raising our grasp to Lady Jane’s torso and then her arms. With the added leverage, we pulled her towards us with one last heave.
The instant we yanked her aboard, we were overcome by the muffled roar of the train entering the tunnel. Darkness overwhelmed us.
Gasps and curses and sobs and prayers filled the boxcar. We remained in blackness for several seconds while we sped through the tunnel, the clanking of the train’s wheels on the rail the only sound. When the end of the tunnel approached and light filtered in, Lady Jane clung to Thomas with tears streaming down her face.
CHAPTER 41
I was stunned to see her in Thomas’s arms. She cried, mentally shattered and destroyed, physically scraped and pummeled, but more or less unhurt. He stroked her hair, caressing the strands between his fingers, and consoled her. I didn’t understand why she hadn’t come to Sir Gregory or me.
I tried to rationalize her behavior. Maybe she’d just hugged the person closest to her. She needed support, an emotional bond, and some assurance that she was safe. But I still found it distressing and confusing. Especially after the intimate moments we had shared.
Sir Gregory was overcome with hurt and despair. The pain on his face and the sadness in his eyes made me realize how much he loved her. I had thought he’d come from India to recover his pride, not to claim his lost love, but I was wrong. He was a good man, sincere and just and honorable, the type you could always trust to do the right thing. Just like Thomas. And even though he
knew he wasn’t welcome, he made the best of it. He had endured capture by the Japanese and all the disasters that had followed, because he loved Lady Jane, and he wanted to win her back. I think for the first time since he’d arrived, he realized that was unlikely.
He stood by awkwardly while she clung to Thomas. Then he leaned forward and lightly touched her shoulder. “You’re safe now, darling.”
Five minutes elapsed before her sobbing subsided. Thomas gently wiped the tears from her cheeks and spoke to her quietly, occasionally saying something that forced a smile. Sir Gregory and I stood by clumsily, wishing we were somewhere else. Finally, Thomas pulled away.
"It's all right now," he said. “You’ll be fine.”
With a final sniffle and a whispered word of gratitude, she moved away from him and sat on a rice bag. She then expressed her appreciation to Sir Gregory and me.
“You saved my life,” she said, facing us with a vacant gaze. “I don’t know how to thank you.” Then she looked away, her eyes trained on the passing countryside.
I noticed that she was behaving strangely, probably from the shock. She stared vacantly ahead, quiet and pale, her arms folded protectively across her chest. Her bout with death had left a vivid vision that would haunt her forever. Why did I expect her to act normally? Of course she had clung to the first person she saw. I was convinced it was the trauma and nothing more that had caused her actions.
As for Thomas, he had merely responded. When Lady Jane embraced him, wanting desperately to be consoled and protected, he had complied just as any true friend would.
When I was sure she was all right, I attended to Thomas’s wound. “Take off your shirt,” I said. “And let me take a look.”
He stripped to the waist. I found that the exit wound on his shoulder had reopened, cracking the scab and oozing blood. I got some gauze from his knapsack and held it against the wound. After a minute of direct pressure, the bleeding ceased.
“Pour some gin on it,” he said. “It fights infection.”
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