He was about to walk round the car when he noticed a figure at the window of that room. A tall, burly man, clean-shaven and heavily tanned, stood gazing down at them. He was quite unknown to Paul. He had the immediate sensation of static electricity brushing up the hair on the nape of his neck. So there was someone else, some other member of the group who did not wish to be seen. The thought was followed by another. If one, why not more? The house could conceal a dozen men provided they kept themselves upstairs in those servants’ quarters. Mere­dith and company would keep them supplied with food. But why? For what purpose? He made himself pass round the rear of the Capri, hoping no one had noticed his hesitation. Apparently none had. He opened the driver’s door, slid into the seat and risked a last glance upwards. The man had gone.

The engine fired at the second attempt with additional choke. It steadied, he let in the choke and shouted goodbye. Meredith and Fletcher waved. As the car crunched crisply over the white driveway, he saw in the rear mirror the Land-Rover fall in behind.

It was not at all worrisome at first. The car moved smoothly along the slowly descending track through the wood, with just a few inches of snow under its wheels. The bad bit came when they broke out of the wood and turned on to the narrow track that climbed round the steep flank of the mountain. To the left the hill dropped sharply, its uneven boulder and bush-bestrewn slope falling down to a twisting, swollen river. On the other side it rose just as steeply. Even in the summer it would have been quite a scramble descending to the river and climbing the other side. Now, with everything deeply covered with snow and ice, it would have been a miserable and hazardous undertaking.

The road dipped prior to turning round the shoulder of the hill. Paul steered the car downwards in low gear, the car engine whining uneasily at the steepness of the gradient. The shoulder was turned and the gradient steepened. His assessment of the view ahead sent a shot of adrenalin coursing through his body. The road fifty feet ahead was invaded from the right by a ten-foot-high mound of soil and boulders from the almost sheer hillside. Beyond the mound a chaos of splintered planks and beams showed where the avalanche had carried away the wooden bridge over the two-hundred-foot deep gully slashed into the hillside.

He stopped the car and got out. A minute later he was joined by the men from the Land-Rover. Smith was the first to put the situation into words.

‘Well, back to the house. There’s no way out here.’ Paul nodded, turned and trudged back to Carol to break the news to her.