It could only be an impoverished mind that could think of such a trite alteration. But the force of it was stark. I opened my eyes and sat up with a start and noticed that Karsten was already squatting on the sleeping bag, with the pistol in his hand. He peered into my eyes inquiringly. He immediately seemed to sense that I had arrived at a morbid realisation of the purpose of the whole game. There was a cold silence for a brief moment.
"Did you get the whole puzzle?" He enquired gravely.
"What puzzle? I think I got the solution to the last word you had given me. "I said in a tone as placid as my wits could muster.
The threatening stillness of the universe was being gently punctuated by the rain drops falling on the fabric of the tent. In my sharpened sensitivity I seemed to hear the ever so faint hum of the helicopter at an awfully far off distance.
"The word?" he asked almost benevolently.
" Is it ICY?" I asked despairingly.
" It is icy!" He declared with malevolent satisfaction.
By now the drone of the helicopter to me was audibly perceptible, but he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts.
"Now for the next word...", he trailed off and stared absorbedly for a moment at vacant space. I realised that he too had heard the drone of the approaching helicopter. I could judge by the sound that it was still hopelessly far off.
"Come on now! Hurry! Limb ... Give me a word for that !"
"Why are you in such a hurry?" I tried to play on. I contrived to buy some precious time by pretending to have wrongly heard the word clue he had given me. "Anyway there are many words for limp. Hobble, Totter, Stagger..."
"Stop it!" He cut me short savagely.
The helicopter was quite close to our camp by now. Karsten suddenly got up and rushed out of the tent. I remained motionless on the sleeping bag. I heard him take a few short steps. Within moments he rushed back and coldly stared at me from the entrance. Our eyes locked each other for a brief moment. His whole face was tense and he clenched his jaws tightly. He then withdrew and ran a few paces down the valley. I heard the loud report of the pistol above the din of the approaching helicopter. Karsten Allärt had blown his brains out!
The Great Greenland Ice Cap seen in the distance
(estimated to be about 10 km thick at places)
During a brief stop at Copenhagen on my way to India, I made enquiries about Karsten . His violent suicide had shocked his friends. They could never visualise him as suicide prone. I had no heart to explain to them that things could have been worse: a murder and a suicide. Things were not too good with Karsten before he left for Greenland. Apparently his girlfriend of many years had left for Cambridge to pursue her studies in veterinary sciences a year before. Upon reaching England she had neither written him a single letter nor had she responded to any of his. There had been no fight or any disagreement and they had parted very cordially. He had confessed to his friends that he was deeply troubled at things having been left hanging and him not being given the reason for the break. Worse still, he was not very sure in his mind whether there was a final break at all. He was feeling lonesome. He had told me so while trekking one day.
xxx
CONCLUDED
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