‘Pray to God they are there,’ Mrs Larkin mumbled, as they all clambered back into the truck.

At Carnforth the train shunted slowly into the station and the guard called out, ‘Everybody off, everybody off.’

The wide-eyed children looked at each other from behind the huge trunks they were pressed against. They both jumped in fear when the door of the luggage van was flung wide open and a deep gruff voice barked, ‘Give us a hand here.’

Staying perfectly still, they saw through the gaps in the piles of teetering luggage an older porter and his young assistant walk in.

‘You take that lot,’ the older man instructed, as he nodded towards the heavy trunks. ‘I’ll get them noisy bloody hens!’

Seeing the interior door to the next carriage hanging wide open, Ronnie gave his sister a sharp dig in the ribs, after which he slipped silently from his hiding place. Crawling along the floor, he waited until both the porter and his assistant had their backs to him, then he bolted through the open door, from where he frantically beckoned to his trembling sister who was too scared to move.

‘Come on!’ Ronnie mouthed.

Checking that both men were still occupied shifting luggage, Sally scampered on all fours to join her brother, who, after yanking her to her feet, grabbed her hand in his and jumped out of the nearest door.

30. Runaways

Though the local constabulary in Grange assured Mrs Larkin that they would alert the bobbies on the beat to the disappearance of the children, they didn’t seem unduly worried. They explained to her that children often went missing, particularly when they lost track of time, but they usually turned up sooner or later, tired out and starving hungry after their adventure. Though this information was meant to reassure Mrs Larkin, it had the opposite effect: she didn’t voice her fears, but she knew in the short time that she had known the Pickles kiddies that they would NEVER miss a meal. Food was their god. As a gnawing anxiety gripped her stomach, Mrs Larkin simply didn’t know what to do for the best. Should she notify the Home of the children’s disappearance? If, like the avuncular policeman said, they turned up later cold and hungry, she would have worried a lot of people unnecessarily, but if they didn’t show up those same people in the Home would be within their rights to question her judgement. In the end she took advice from Mr Larkin, who characteristically didn’t beat about the bush.

‘You don’t need to sound the alarm bell to everybody in the building, but you should have a word with somebody in charge,’ he wisely suggested.