For the last week snow had been failing in greater quantities every day. The barricade of felled trees and branches across the track now appeared as a solid barrier of snow, twenty feet in height, shutting them completely away from the road. Fresh falls of snow had long since obliterated the rubbish left by the Russians and the Satanic snow god which Erika had fashioned was now a cone shaped pillar; the only landmark which broke the smooth, crystal white carpet of the clearing. On cloudless days when the sun shone for an hour or two low over the treetops there was a temporary thaw. The monotonous patter of drips would start about one o'clock, only to cease again shortly after two as the melted snow froze into icicles which got longer and longer as the days passed, until by early. January the trapper's domain was like a fairy scene in a pantomime portraying the Ice King's realm. The cold was so intense that they never went out except on the necessary business of visiting the stores in the block or tending the horses, and occasionally on longer expeditions to secure fresh food.
The icy air seemed to have driven even the Arctic animals into some secret shelter of their own. Only the wolves still evinced their presence by their dismal howling at night; and even Freddie, who was the hardiest of the party, found that he could not remain out long enough to follow the occasional spoor they saw for a sufficient distance to get a shot at a bear or reindeer; so they had to content themselves with fish.
But each expedition to the lake became more hazardous as although they knew the way there well now there was always the danger of being caught in a heavy snow storm. When returning from the lake on January the i8th Freddie and Gregory were surprised by a blizzard in which they lost themselves for an hour while they could not see more than two yards ahead. They only found the house again by sheer good luck, and decided that to make further fishing expeditions would be courting death.
Their inability to hunt or fish any longer explained why the Finnish trapper had laid in such a large stock of dried meat and tinned stores; for without these things any family in that region would have starved to death long before the thaw set in.
' By the end of January they were completely snow bound and the radio which had kept them in touch with the outer world had been silent for three weeks. In all that utter stillness no sound had reached them except the occasional howl of a wolf or the dripping of the trees, and that of their own voices and movements in the one big room where they lived and slept.
They knew that they had at least three months to go before the thaw would start in that high latitude. In the meantime two wars were raging; one, with bitter intensity, only a few hundred miles away; the other a strange, unusual sort of war which had so far consisted of ceaseless naval vigilance and tip and run aircraft raids, but a war upon which hung the fate of their countries and the future of all civilization. Yet they could learn nothing of them since they were cut off from the world just as surely as though they had been dead.
But the Timeless Ones who fashion for all mankind their trials and opportunities decreed that they should leave their refuge long before the thaw set in.
Chapter XXIV
Buried Alive
IN the long dark days, when the grey light filtered through the remaining panes of window for such a little time that it seemed as though they were living in perpetual night, their only occupation was telling stories and seeking to improve Gregory's memory, as there were no books in any language that they could read, no games to play or radio to listen to.
By the end of January he had reacquired quite a considerable stock of miscellaneous knowledge but countless facts and many episodes in his own life about which the others could not inform him still remained a closed book. For instance, although he had eight scars from old wounds on his body he did not know how he had acquired any of them, except the cut on the back of his head which had caused him to lose his memory and the wound on his shoulder which he had received on the night of November the 8th during the Army Putsch in Berlin. He talked intelligently again about the subjects he had mastered, but rather in the manner of a bright schoolboy than in that of an extraordinarily well informed man and, while he entered cheerfully into any pastime or job that was suggested, he seemed entirely to have lost his initiative and to be incapable of producing any new ideas as to how they might wile away the endless hours.
For going out in the snow he used a pair of the trapper's snow boots but he still retained most of his money in the false soles of his shoes, which he used in the house, and one of the soles had worn a little thin, so Erika suggested that he should turn cobbler and resole it with a piece of untanned leather cut from the thickest pelt they could find in the almost empty fur store, nailing the piece of tough, dry skin on with some brads, of which there were plenty in the trapper's tool chest.
Before he started on the job he removed the false sole inside the shoe and took out the wad of high denomination German bank notes. With them were a few folded sheets of thin paper, almost filled with close typescript, which he glanced at casually and threw aside.
"What's this?" Erika asked, picking them up and smoothing them out.
"Something out of my dead past, I expect," he laughed. "Anyhow, I have no secrets from you, my sweet, so read it and see."
"It's in German," she said, "and obviously typed by an amateur."
He smiled. "I’m afraid that means nothing to me. What's it say?"
She read for a few moments in silence, then replied: "Heaven knows; it seems to be somebody's plans to hold a Familie Tag."
"What's that?" asked Freddie.
"It's a type of reunion, very popular in Germany. The head of a family selects a certain day in the year generally in the summer and he issues invitations to every member of the family wherever they may be, with their wives and husbands if they have them, and even to their relatives by marriage. The whole lot gather together sometimes as many as two or three hundred people if the head of the family is a rich man; even his relatives abroad attend if they can. Although they call it a Family day it's generally an affair lasting a whole week, and during it they have picnics and dances and dinners with speeches and lots to drink."
"I see," said Angela; "the idea is to keep the members of the family in touch with one another, I suppose?"
"That's it," Erika nodded; "and at the same time profitable business often results. It gives the men an opportunity to discuss their affairs and if they have similar types of undertakings in different cities they're able to get in quite a lot of good work at the same time as they are having a week's holiday with their relatives and friends."
"Yes, I remember the custom," said Gregory, "but I can't think where I could have got hold of such a thing. If it gives the names of any of the people, read them out; that might give me a clue."
"Great Aunt Wilhelmina, Cousin Julia, Jacob Bauer (he's a Jew and doesn't seem to be at all popular with the rest of the crowd) the Engels branch of the family, Ernst, Mr. Saxe, Mrs. Klein also referred to as Aunt Marta Uncle Rudolf, Uncle Ulrich, Cousin Vicki, the Müllers, Mitzi, Gerta, Paula, August, little Paul…" Erika suddenly broke off. "There are dozens of them mentioned here."
Gregory shook his head. "No, none of those names mean anything special to me."
"Read it to us," Angela suggested, and Erika began, translating slowly into English as she read:
"'ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE NEXT FAMILY DAY
" 'Our last Family Reunion was not the success it should have been, owing to lack of forethought and careful preparation. As a result of over eagerness Great Aunt Wilhelmina arrived before we were ready, so we lost the telling effect of the old lady's entrance. Mother let us down very badly at the last moment by refusing to come at all; and, through neglect, other important members of the family did not receive their invitations or, having done so, did not accept because insufficient fuss was made about the importance of their presence in our midst. Our main mistake, however, was to quarrel openly with Cousin Julia, since this resulted in throwing her into the arms of that unspeakable Jew, Jacob Bauer, who immediately became engaged to her and who, through the power of his money and his hatred for us, has always striven to keep the family apart for his own benefit.