But the supply' of food they had found in the cupboards was very limited so Freddie was still greatly concerned about their situation. If there was not a larger stock somewhere about they would have to move on again; a thought that presented a score of difficult problems. In discussing their prospects it was Freddie who now took the lead while Gregory meekly agreed to everything that was said. Angela declared that she must go and look after the horses and Freddie said that he would make a full inspection of the premises; upon which, in silent acquiescence Gregory followed them out of the house like an eager but meek looking spaniel.
When they drove up to the building the night before they had been vaguely puzzled by the fact that although from the outside it appeared to be quite a sizable place it seemed to consist of only the stable and one large living room; but they had been too exhausted to bother about that at the time.
On going round the house they found that there were three other rooms in it, although none of these led into the room where they had slept; which Erika, who had followed the men out, remarked, was probably to prevent the intense cold seeping into the living room through the cracks round a number of doorways.
The first room they entered was a fur store. It was very nearly empty, as the trapping season had only just begun, but its use was obvious from three bundles of pelts lying on the floor and a dozen skins which were hanging up to dry from rafters in the roof.
To their delight they found that the second room was a food store and, evidently, the trapper had laid in his supplies for the winter. No refrigerating apparatus was needed in that climate and there was a great' pile of skinned and gutted carcasses with the antlered heads still attached, showing that they were reindeer. Two or three dozen joints which hung from the beams they took to be haunches of either bear or venison; and filling almost half the floor space was a stack of cases. They set to work opening these with a jemmy which lay handy on a shelf and found them to contain tinned stores milk, coffee, the cheaper varieties of jams and fruits, pork and beans. Soups, sausages, sweet corn and other vegetables; there was also a pile of about a hundred of the cart wheel rye bread loaves and twenty crocks of pickled eggs. Altogether it was a most satisfactory supply which, although containing few luxuries, would have been ample to see the trapper and his family comfortably through the winter and, if necessary, would serve a similar purpose for the party that had taken over his home.
The third room was a general store. It contained half a dozen sets of skis and ski sticks of varying sizes, several pairs of big snow shoe,, three small sledges of a size to be pulled by dogs or men and all the family's spare clothing, which included several sets of furs and two trunks full of other garments; the whole of the far end of the room was stacked with a huge pile of logs and a number of drums of paraffin.
Angela rejoined them while they were still examining the packing cases in the food store to report that the stable was equally well equipped. The trapper had evidently owned two or three horses, although these must have been driven off by the Russians; but that the horses had been stabled there was obvious from the sleigh harness that was still hanging on the hooks, a big troika that occupied one corner of the stable and a good stock of corn and hay that had also been left intact.
The examination of the cases, trunks and other items had occupied them for over three hours so it was close on seven o'clock by the time they returned to the living room. Erika had brought with her from the store a tin of sweet corn, a tin of fruit and half a dozen eggs upon which, with another boiling of coffee, they made their evening meal. While they were eating it, and afterwards, they gave Gregory a more detailed account of the recent adventures in which they had all been involved, but they were still tired from the excitements and anxieties of the previous day so at nine o'clock, having banked up the stove, they put out the lamp and climbed on to the warm top of the brick oven again.
They awoke the following morning at seven o'clock. It was still pitch dark and it now seemed to them that they had not seen daylight for several days, but they got up and prepared breakfast. When they had finished Freddie said that he thought they ought to give some sort of burial to the owners of the place, who were still lying round the corner of the house where he had carried them, warped and frozen, in the attitudes in which they had died.
With Gregory as his meek, willing helper he went outside. Having retrieved the bodies from the previous night's fall of snow they carried them about a hundred yards to a group of trees. Digging through the snow which was already several feet deep they laid the four bodies on the iron hard ground. Freddie could not remember the burial service apart from the phrase "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust", but rather self consciously he said a short prayer over the grave, recommending the Finnish family to the mercy of Almighty God, while Gregory looked on with child like interest. They then shovelled the snow back on top of the bodies, just as the late dawn was filtering through the silent. snow covered forest.
Directly they were back in the house Freddie called a Council of War. The one and only item on his agenda was: should they stay where they were or re harness the horses to the troika and try to break through the scattered Russian line which lay somewhere to the west, in an attempt to get back to the territory that was still held by the civilized Finns?
Erika pointed out that if they did get back to Finland both he and Gregory were wanted for murder there; at which Gregory began to giggle. Pulling up short he apologized and said he found that awfully difficult to believe, because he was really a most harmless person and had never raised a finger against anybody in his life.
The others looked at one another and smiled with pained discretion but they forbore to argue with him and Freddie admitted the point that Erika had made. The last thing he wished to do was to expose himself to re arrest and the possibility of being hanged for murder by the terrifyingly law conscious Finns.
"The only alternative, then, as far as I can see," he said, "is for us to strike north towards the coast. It can't be more than forty or fifty miles distant and we ought to be able to find a fishing village somewhere along it where they won't know anything about us. Gregory has plenty of money…'
"Have l?" interrupted Gregory. "But how nice."
"Yes," Freddie continued. "From what I remember, you've still got over £500 in your pockets and your boots."
"Then if we could get home I could buy a cottage somewhere and a lot of books I'm sure I used to like books," Gregory remarked with considerable interest.
"You could, but you wouldn't, darling," Erika assured him. "You'd be much more likely to blow the lot on taking me to Paris if there wasn't a war on, and hiring the Royal suite at the Ritz."
"The Ritz…" echoed Gregory thoughtfully.”I believe I used to stay there sometimes. I seem to remember a long, long corridor with show cases on each side of it."
"Go on," said Angela, her blue eyes laughing, "go on. What else?"
"There was a foyer as one came in from the square…' "That's it. ThePlace Vendome."
Gregory nodded. "And one went through the long corridor to the bar. It was run by a great character a fellow who would always cash everybody's cheques. I can't remember his name wait a minute, though it was Frank yes, Frank. He was a grand man, and you could never go into the place without meeting somebody you knew."