“Not likely. Why, this would be a warm, enervating spring day in Archangel. There’s the wood, in that bin.”
Bob had struck matches as he spoke, for the lodge, with curtains drawn, was almost dark. He spied a candle on the rough wooden table in the principal room where they stood, and, lighting it, held it up to survey the surroundings. “Not much of a place,” he remarked. “There can’t be but two rooms, altogether.”
“It’s rather nice, though, cozy, if German,” said Larry, throwing pine-boughs on the broad stone hearth.
There was no other furniture in the room than the big table, four or five massive chairs, cut from pine-trunks as rudely as if by Franz’ own hands, and a couple of fox or wolf skins on the pine floor. There was a smoky-beamed ceiling above the red-curtained leaded windows, and trophies of the chase—stag-heads and rabbit skins, together with weapons, shotguns, pistols and sabres—ornamented the unplastered walls.
Larry had kindled the fire, which now began to blaze with a great cheerful light. Lucy drew aside one of the curtains to reveal the hemlock trunks and the dull twilight of the storm.
“Sit down, everybody. We’re here for an hour or two,” said Larry, dusting his sleeves over the hearth and looking rather pleased with his handiwork. “It’s three o’clock. I don’t think it will snow all the afternoon. It seldom does when it comes up in a flurry.”
“I think I’ll explore the other room,” said Bob, nodding toward the closed door beside the hearth. “Herr Johann gave me a free hand, so it can’t be called snooping. Not that I’d feel much scruple——”
“Wait a bit, Bob. Warm up first,” counselled Larry. He threw off his overcoat and sank into a chair beside the girls, who were already drawn up before the fire. He spoke casually, but Lucy discerned in his voice a lingering anxiety for Bob and added her own persuasion.
“There’s no hurry, Bob. Look at that beautiful fire Larry’s made. It’s worth breaking in here for.”
“I wonder what kind of talk has taken place before this hearth,” said Michelle, watching the flames. She glanced about the room and added, “It is very bare. They do not leave anything behind.”