Ianthina
And so they lied their lives together. Foolishly unconcerned about anything but money inside their pampered bodies their spirits atrophied like dolls forgotten in an attic. He abandoned his philosophical studies and turned his attention to robbing the wild boars of their humanity she ran a brothel and sold addictive poison to the extremely poor. Faced with the nuisance of living against the grain the unhappy pair sneered at the fatigued teepees of the homeless at the despondent outcasts and the flabby runaways at all outward signs of unrest. Millionaires unhampered by ordinary moments they reached the place where wicked minds are made fast. They threw stingy parties to impress their detestable friends they reared a spoiled brat who was later called Baron Taugenicht they committed several grisly murders to discourage their enemies. Like dancers gathering primroses they waltzed through life deceiving the bewildered and overpowering the uncertain. No one dared oppose them for the greedy have always owned the world. Then one night Ianthina blackmailed the wrong slumlord. She had learned that Lefort was defrauding the government of thousands of years every day. Leon Lefort was a slippery old bloodsucker engrossed in the lowest conduct existence has to offer the open ditch of his selfish narrow mind was marred only by a sentimental weakness for one of Ianthina’s humans. Eavesdropping on the sly slumlord had given her enough evidence to confront him in the hothouse.
Look here! he exclaimed harshly striking her and producing a revolver from his coat pocket.
Just about the time that the drifting snow reached over their heads it unexpectedly began to fall away. The shadowtravellers were frozen stiff facing the consequences of their madness. Nothing daunted the remaining snowmen trundled round the battlefield chanting cheerfully as they restored their friends to life. As they rolled up the snow it sank slowly from around the cold shadows leaving them planted on the ground. Darkness oozed across the bottom of the crater as the earth set. The snowfolk managed to reassemble most of their comrades though many were tinged grey and freckled with cinders. Two broke the inert forms of Ianthina and Wilfrid free and bore them away into the mines. The rest soon followed. Time stopped counting so much. Unnoticed the black and red reptile escaped from the crevasse and called down a burning canoe from the sky. Then laughing unpleasantly he paddled off towards the sun. Gathering in a cavern the snowmen waited respectfully for the travellers to collect their thoughts before they read the charges. Every mean scheme every criminal venture every careless act and every cowardly lie of their sorry lives was laid bare for all to see. The moon circled the earth swaying from side to side the sun went on tumbling pell mell through a vast area of space saturated with the evil residue of an ancient war. Disconcerted the accused had to be propped up against the luncheon gong while their fate was decided by a simple show of hands. The evil residue had been silenced in the mine at a very great cost and at frequent intervals a snowman would rush out into the lunar night shrieking and cursing.
