The Adventure Calendar of Mr Timothy Hope is a seasonal story of unlikely accidents and hair-raising escapes told in 24 letters sent home by Timothy Hope as he journeys in the Arctic Circle. Featuring characters such as the unhinged big-game hunter Baronet Oxshott, the scatter-brained genius Professor Cumulus and the always inventive Timothy Hope, the story is a frequently silly, always exciting sleigh ride across crevasses, through wolf packs, into the heart of Christmas itself.
11th December
My Dear Lady Misericordia,
I hope this letter finds you well.
I had just laid down my pen and sealed my last letter to you, prior to going for yet another supper of fish, when the train came to a sudden and screeching stop.
I ran to the window, determined to discover what the trouble was, and it wasn't hard to find out. A great snowdrift had come roaring down the mountain in an avalanche and covered the tracks ahead in deep and uncrossable snow.
We were stuck in this remote pass until we could dig ourselves free, which might take hours, if not days. Oxshott was allowed out of the luggage van and, with the rest of us, handed a shovel. We would all have to start digging.
We quickly fell into a rhythm. Although the work was warm, the snow and the night were immensely cold and I soon found that I needed to warm my feet and hands to keep the dreadful frost at bay. I joined the driver in the cab of the engine and he set about making us a jug of coffee, grabbing a handful of snow and stuffing it into a kettle which he placed on the coals where it quickly started to steam.
I stared at it in wonder. How could I have been so stupid? Stomping about out there in the cold when here was an easy and, more importantly, warm way to get rid of snow?
"Stop, everyone, stop digging!" I ran out into the drift waving my arms, "Professor, we have steel pipes in the van, don't we, for taking ice cores? Oxshott, you've got those metal canisters for storing your specimens! Quick, you men, fetch them all!"
"Stop mucking about and get digging, you shirker," shouted Oxshott, but Harry intervened.
"I see what he means," he shouted, "I've got some solder, too, we'll need that!"
"Have you two lost your wits?" asked Lord Daunt.
"No, your Lordship," I rejoined, "We've found them."
I was rather pleased with that remark and was careful to note it down for further use.
With the help of the driver and the engineer, Harry and I started work, using the heat of the fire in the engine to shape and join the steel pipes.
"We'll join them to the boiler, you see," I explained, "Then we can shoot the steam from the engine in front of us as we travel, using the heat to melt the snow out of our way."
"Brilliant, lad!" cried the Professor and slapped me on the back, but no sooner had he spoken than we all froze in our tracks, and not because of the cold.
For down out of the starlit darkness, from somewhere high up among the black trees that thronged the desolate mountain, came the low, bloodchilling howl of a wolf. And then another, and another - a whole, hungry pack, crying up at the night.
"Well," said Lord Daunt, "Let's get a move on with it, shall we? It might be a good idea to get out of here before breakfast. Their breakfast, I mean."
We struggled with the hot steel in the numbing cold, all the while watching with one eye on the woods as dark shapes came flitting down over the snow, circling closer and closer to the train.
Then, one after the other, yellow eyes sprang to life in the darkness around us, and we could hear them, panting and growling to one another and they made little darting runs into our circle of light, their white fangs flashing in the lamps.
We were almost ready - the engineer had a head of steam up, the wheels were squealing at the brakes. I only had one more pipe to fix into place. Oxshott was standing on the front of the train, holding the pipe, and I was kneeling on top, when out of the shadows came a growl and a great, hurtling thing, a whirlwind of fur and claws and teeth, dropping down on us from the top of the snowdrift.
"Turn on the steam!" I shouted, and the engineer released the valve. With a shriek the engine jolted forward, knocking us from the tank, blasting the yelping wolf flying with a great cloud of billowing steam.
As the steam jetted forward the snow about us began to melt, running down and almost immediately freezing once again into a solid sheet of ice. The train began to edge forward, the drift dissolving away in front of it, but as I tried to get up to board the engine once more, I slipped on the ice, and as I tried to regain my footing, slipped again, and I went sliding this way and that, barely able to keep my balance.
As the train started to shudder past, something hit forcibly from behind, sending me skidding away from the cab - a wolf! Caught on the ice sheet it, too, started sliding, unable to keep its legs in order, scrabbling past me, snapping and growling as it slid around.
Then another, and another, until I was careening about on the ice alongside the accelerating train with four wolves, all of them flailing about, legs flying, jaws snapping, the five of us caught up in some ungainly ballet swerving and bumping and growling and yelling.
And then something grabbed hold of my collar. At first I thought it must be one of the wolves and struggled to free myself, but I heard Harry's clear, high voice saying:
"Don't throw yourself about so much! Grab my hand!"
I tried to turn towards him, but my feet slipped out from underneath me and one of the wolves came spinning towards me, seizing hold of my coat in its teeth as it passed, pulling me away from the train. Suddenly, out of the darkness, Baronet Oxshott came swinging down from the roof of the train and grabbed me, pulling me with him into the interior of the train, complete with the wolf, still hanging onto my coat and growling.
With an oath, Oxshott sprang forward, teeth bared, and punched it squarely on the nose. It dropped soundlessly to the floor and he hauled it up by the scruff of the neck, dangling it over me as I lay sprawled on the floor.
"Bite's worse than its bark," he joked and shook, rattling the teeth at me, "Make a nice pair with the shark, don't you think?" And he stumped off happily to his luggage van, dragging the wolf behind him.
With the snowdrift melting away from before us, forming shining, frozen walls on either side of us and the rest of the wolf pack slipping and sliding about behind us, the train began to pick up speed and we were safely back on our way.
Everyone was very complimentary about my snow clearing device, especially the driver and the engineer, but I must confess I was too tired and bewildered from my strange ice dancing with wolves to really take it all in.
I have now retired to my berth with a mug of hot cocoa prepared by Harry from his own personal stock, who was kind enough to say that he was very impressed with both my invention and my bravery. He really is a delightful young man and a credit to the Professor's daughter's taste in hiring him to join us. I am still convinced that I recognise him from somewhere, although he is insistent that we have never met before.
Anyway, we have now cleared the avalanche and I can safely settle down to sleep as we steam away under the mountains off up into the North.
Yours,
Your dogged (or should that be wolfed?) explorer
Timothy Hope, Esq, Tutor
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