CHAPTER XI.
AFLOAT.
It was a pleasant journey through the forest, with its thick and variedfoliage, that afforded a shade from the sun's rays, with patches of openground here and there bright with flowers. Godfrey had enjoyed it atfirst, but he enjoyed it still more after he had got rid of the convictbadge. He had now no fear of meeting anyone in the woods exceptcharcoal-burners or woodmen, or escaped convicts like themselves. Bysuch they would not be suspected of being aught but what theyseemed--two peasants; unless indeed, a hat should fall off. The firstnight after leaving the prison Godfrey had done his best to obliteratethe convict brand, by singeing it off as he had done before.
Each day the air grew warmer, and they could pick as they walked anyquantity of raspberries and whortleberries. Luka always filled thekettle at each streamlet they came to, as they could never tell how longthey would be before they arrived at another, and the supply renderedthem independent, and enabled them to camp whenever they took a fancy toa spot. They walked steadily from sunrise to sunset, and as they went ata good pace Godfrey was sure that they were doing fully the thirty-fivemiles a day he had calculated on. Although Sundays had not been observedat the prison, and the work went on those days as on others, Godfrey hadnot lost count, and knew that it was on a Monday evening that they hadbroken out, and each Sunday was used as a day of rest.
"We are travelling at a good pace, Luka," he said, "and thirty-fivemiles a day six days a week is quite enough, so on Sundays we willalways choose a good camping ground by a stream, wash our clothes, andrest."
They had little trouble about provisions. At lonely houses they couldalways obtain them, and there they were received very hospitably, thepeasants often refusing absolutely to accept money, or at any rategiving freely of all the articles they themselves raised, and taking payonly for tea and sugar, which they themselves had to purchase. When nosuch places could be met with they went down to villages at night, andnever failed to find bread and cakes on the window-sills, though it wasnot often that meat was there, for the peasants themselves obtained itbut seldom. Godfrey had no fear of his money running short for a longtime. The six hundred roubles with which he arrived at Kara had beenincreased by his earnings during the nine months he had been there. Hehad spent but a few kopecks a week for tea and tobacco, and his paywhile he had been a clerk was a good deal larger than while he had beenworking in the mine. Luka, too, had saved every kopeck he had receivedfrom the day when Godfrey told him that he would take him with him whenhe ran away. He had even given up smoking, and was with difficultypersuaded by Godfrey to take some tobacco occasionally from him. Betweenthem in the nine months they had laid by nearly a hundred roubles, andhad, therefore, after deducting the money given by Godfrey to Mikail andthat paid for the gun and clothes, over five hundred roubles for theirjourney.
They were glad, indeed, when at last they saw the broad sheet of LakeBaikal. They had for some time been bearing to the north of west, andstruck the lake some twenty miles from its head. There were a good manysmall settlements round the lake, a good deal of fishing being carriedon upon it, although the work was dangerous, for terrible stormsfrequently swept down from the northern mountains and sent the boatsflying into port. The lake is one of the deepest in the world, soundingsin many places being over five thousand feet. Many rivers run into thelake, the only outflow being by the Angara. Baikal is peculiar as beingthe only fresh-water lake in the world where seals are found, about twothousand being killed annually. The shores are in most places extremelysteep, precipices rising a thousand feet sheer up from the edge of thewater, with soundings of a hundred and fifty fathoms a few yards fromtheir feet. Fish abound in the lake, and sturgeon of large size arecaptured there.
Godfrey knew that there were guard-houses with Cossacks on the roadbetween the northern point of water and the steep mountains that risealmost directly from it. He had specially studied the geography of thisregion, and knew that after passing round the head of the lake therewas a track across the hills by which they would, after travelling ahundred and fifty miles, strike the main road from Irkutsk to Yakutsk,near the town of Kirensk, on the river Lena. From Kirensk it would bebut little more than a hundred miles to the nearest point on the Angara,which is one of the principal branches of the Yenesei.
To gain this river would be a great point. The Lena, which was evennearer to the head of Lake Baikal, also flowed into the Arctic Sea; butits course was almost due north, and it would be absolutely hopeless toendeavour to traverse the whole of the north coast of Siberia. TheAngara and the Yenesei, on the other hand, flowed north-west, and fellinto the Arctic Sea near the western boundary of Siberia, and when theyreached that point they would be but a short distance from Russia. Itseemed to him that the only chance was by keeping by a river. In thegreat ranges of mountains in the north of Siberia there would be nomeans of obtaining food, and to cross such a district would be certaindeath. By the rivers, on the other hand, there would at least be no fearof losing their way. The journey could be shortened by using a canoe ifthey could obtain one, and if not, a raft. They would often find littlenative villages or huts by the banks, and would be able to obtain fishfrom them. Besides, they could themselves catch fish, and might possiblyeven winter in some native village. For all these reasons he haddetermined on making for the Angara.
Buying a stock of dried fish at a little fishing village on the lakethey walked to within a mile of its head, there they slept for thenight, and started an hour before daybreak, passed the Cossackguard-house unseen just as the daylight was stealing over the sky, andthen went along merrily.
The road was not much used, the great stream of traffic passing acrossLake Baikal, but was in fair condition, and they made good progressalong it. Long before that, Luka had, after several attempts, made a bowto his satisfaction. It was formed of three or four strips of tough woodfirmly bound together with waxed twine, they having procured the stringand the wax at a farmhouse on the way. There was one advantage in takingthis unfrequented route. The road between Irkutsk and Tomsk was, asGodfrey had learned on his outward journey, frequented by bands ofbrigands who had no hesitation in killing as well as plunderingwayfarers. Here they were only likely to fall in with convicts who hadescaped from Irkutsk or from convoys along the road, and were for themost part perfectly harmless, seeking only to spend a summer holiday infreedom, and knowing that when winter came on they would have tosurrender themselves.
Of such men Godfrey had no fear, his gun and his companion's bow andarrows rendered them too formidable to be meddled with, and until theycame down upon the main road there was no chance of their meeting policeofficers or Cossacks. No villages were passed on the journey, andGodfrey, therefore, had no longer any hesitation in shooting thesquirrels that frisked about among the trees. He found them, as Luka hadsaid, excellent eating, although it required three or four of them tofurnish anything like a meal. He soon, however, gave over shooting, forhe found that Luka was at least as certain with his bow as he was withthe gun, with the advantage that the blunt arrow did not spoil theskins. These, as Luka told him, were valuable, and they would be able toexchange them for food, the Siberian squirrel furnishing a highly-prizedfur.
Each day Luka brought down at least a dozen of these little creatures,and these, with their dried fish and cakes made of flour, afforded themexcellent food on their way. After four days' walking across a loftyplateau they descended into a cultivated valley, and before them rosethe cupolas of Kirensk, while along the valley flowed the Lena, as yetbut a small river, although it would become a mighty flood before itreached the sea, nearly four thousand miles away. It would have to becrossed at Kirensk, and they sat down and held a long council as to howthey had best get through the town. They agreed that it must be done atnight, for in the daytime they certainly would have to producepassports.
"There will not be much chance of meeting a Cossack or a policeman atone or two o'clock in the morning, Luka, and if there were any about weought to be able to get past them in the
dark."
"If one stops us I can settle him," Luka said, tapping his knife.
"No, no, Luka, we won't have any bloodshed if we can help it, though Ido not mean to be taken. If a fellow should stop us and ask anyquestions, and try to arrest us, I will knock him down, and then we willmake a bolt for it. There is no moon now, and it will be dark as pitch,so that if we kick out his lantern he would be unable to follow us. Ifhe does, you let fly one of your blunted arrows at him. That will hithim quite hard enough, though it won't do him any serious damage. Ofcourse, if there are several of them we must fight in earnest, but it isvery unlikely we shall meet with even two men together at that time ofnight."
Accordingly they went in among some trees and lay down, and did not moveuntil they heard the church bells of the distant town strike twelve.Then they resumed their journey, keeping with difficulty along the road.Once in the valley it became broader and better kept. At last theyapproached the bridge. Godfrey had had some fear that there might be asentry posted here, and was pleased to find it entirely deserted.
"We will take off our shoes here, Luka, tie them with a piece of string,and hang them round our necks. We shall go noiselessly through the townthen, while if we go clattering along in those heavy shoes, everypoliceman there may be in the streets will be on the look-out to see whowe are."
They passed, however, through the town without meeting either policemanor soldier. The streets were absolutely deserted, and the wholepopulation seemed to be asleep. Once through the town they put on theirshoes again, followed the road for a short distance, and then lay downunder some trees to wait for daylight. Now that they were in the countrythey had no fear of being asked for passports, and it was not until thesun was well up that they continued their journey. Four miles fartherthey came upon a village, and went boldly into a small shop andpurchased flour, tea, and such articles as they required. Just as theycame out the village policeman came along.
"Where do you come from?" he asked.
"I don't ask you where you come from," Godfrey replied. "We are quietmen and hunters. We pay for what we get, and harm no one who does notinterfere with us. See, we have skins for sale if there is anyone in thevillage who will buy them."
"The man at the spirit-shop at the end of the village will buy them,"the policeman said; "he gives a rouble a dozen for them."
"Thank you," and with a Russian salutation they walked on.
"Of course he suspects what we are," Godfrey said to his companion; "butthere was no fear of his being too inquisitive. The authorities do notreally care to arrest the wanderers during the summer months, as theyknow they will get them all when winter comes on; besides, in thesevillages all the people sympathize with us, and as we are armed, andnot likely to be taken without a fight, it is not probable that one manwould care to venture his life in such a matter."
On arrival at the spirit-shop they went in.
"The policeman tells us you buy skins at a rouble for a dozen. We haveten dozen."
"Are they good and uninjured?" the man asked.
"They are. There is not a hole in any of them."
The man looked them through carefully.
"I will buy them," he said. "Do you want money, or will you take some ofit in vodka?"
"We want money. We do not drink in summer when we are hunting."
The man handed over ten rouble notes, and they passed out. A minutelater the policeman strolled in.
"Wanderers?" he said with a wink. The vodka seller shrugged hisshoulders.
"I did not ask them," he said. "They came to me with a goodrecommendation, for they told me that you had sent them here. So afterthat it was not for me to question them."
"I told them you bought skins," the policeman said. "They seemedwell-spoken fellows. The one with the bow was a Tartar or an Ostjak, Ishould say; he may have been a Yakute, but I don't think so. However, itmatters little to me. If there was anything wrong they ought to havequestioned them at Kirensk; they have got soldiers there. Why should Iinterfere with civil people, especially when one has a gun and the otherarrows?"
"That was just my opinion," the other said. "Well, here is a glass ofvodka, and I will take one with you. They are good skins, all shot witha blunt arrow."
Godfrey and his companion now took matters easily. There was no motivefor hurrying, and they devoted themselves seriously to the chase.
"We must have skins for the winter," Luka said. "I can dress and sewthem. The squirrels are plentiful here, and if we set snares we maycatch some foxes. We shall want some to make a complete suit with capsfor each of us, and skins to form bags for sleeping in; but these lastwe can buy on the way. The hunters in summer bring vast quantities ofskins down to the rivers to be taken up to Krasnoiarsk by steamer, andyou can get elk skins for a rouble or two, which will do for sleepingbags, but they are too thick for clothing unless they are very wellprepared. At any rate we will get as many squirrel skins as we can, bothfor clothes, and to exchange for commoner skins and high boots."
It was three weeks after they had left Kirensk before they struck theAngara, near Karanchinskoe. They had traversed a distance, as the crowflies, of some eight hundred miles since leaving Kara, but by the routethey had travelled it was at least half as far again, and they had beenlittle over ten weeks on the journey. Luka had assured Godfrey that theywould have no difficulty in obtaining a boat.
"Everywhere there are fishing people on the rivers," he said. "There areTunguses--they are all over Siberia. There are the Ostjaks on all therivers. There are my own people, but they are more to the south, nearMinusinsk, and from there to Kasan, and seldom come far north. In summereveryone fishes or hunts. I could make you a boat with two or threeskins of bullocks or horses or elk, it only needs these and a frameworkof wood; but we can buy one for three or four roubles a good one. Wewant one strong and large and light, for the river is terribly swift.There are places where it runs nearly as fast as a horse can gallop."
"Certainly we will get a good-sized one, Luka. If the river runs soswiftly we shall have no paddling to do, and therefore it will notmatter at all about her being fast; besides, we shall want to carry agood load. We will not land oftener than we can help, and can sleep onboard, and it will be much more comfortable to have a boat that one canmove about in without being afraid of capsizing her. Whatever it costs,let us get a good boat."
"We will get one," Luka said confidently. "We shall find Ostjaks' hutsall along the banks, and at any of these, if they have not a boat thatwill suit us, they will make us one in two or three days."
Avoiding the town, and passing through the villages at night, they keptalong down the river bank for four days. The river was as wide as theThames at Greenwich, with a very rapid current. They saw in some of thequiet reaches fishing-boats at work, some with nets, others with lines,and at night saw them spearing salmon and sturgeon by torch-light.Across the river they made out several of the yourts or summer tents ofthe Ostjaks, but it was not until the fourth day that they came upon agroup of seven or eight of these tents on the river bank. The men wereall away fishing, but the women came out to look at the strangers. AsLuka spoke their dialect he had no difficulty in opening theconversation with them. He told them that he and his companion wanted togo down the river to Yeneseisk, and wished to buy a boat, a good one.
The women said that some of the men would be in that evening, and thatthe matter could be arranged.
"They will be glad to sell us a boat," Luka said to Godfrey. "They arevery poor the Ostjaks; they have nothing but their tents, their boats,and their clothes. They live on the fish they catch, but fish are soplentiful they can scarce get anything for them, so they are very gladwhen they can sell anything for money."
The Ostjak men arrived just before it became dark. They wore highflat-topped fur caps, a dress something like a long loose blouse, andtrousers of fine leather tucked into boots that came up to the knee.Most of them had bows and arrows in addition to their fishing gear.Godfrey felt no uneasiness among these men as he would
have done amongthe Buriats in the east, for they were now at a distance from anyconvict settlements, and these people would know nothing about therewards offered to the natives in the neighbourhood of the mines for thearrest of prisoners. A present of some tobacco, of which Godfrey hadlaid in a large stock, put the Ostjaks into an excellent temper. Fishwere broiling over the fire when they returned, and the two travellersjoined them at their meal. After this was over and pipes lighted thesubject of the boat was discussed. The Ostjaks were perfectly ready totrade. They said they would sell any of their six boats for threeroubles, and that if they did not think any of these large enough theywould build them a larger one in three days for six roubles.
Godfrey had exchanged twenty roubles for kopecks at the first villagethey had passed after reaching the river, as he knew that notes would beof no use among the native tribes, and without bargaining he acceptedthe offer they made. After passing the night stretched by the fire theywent down with the men in the morning to inspect the boats. They werelarger than he had expected to find them, as the fishing populationoften shift their quarters by the river and travel in boats, takingtheir family, tent, and implements with them.
"What do you think, Luka?"
"They are large enough," Luka said, "but they are not in very goodcondition. I should say that farthest one would do very well; but let ushave a look at the state of the skins."
The boat was hauled ashore and carefully examined. Three or four of theskins were found to be old and rotten; the rest had evidently beenrenewed from time to time.
"We will take this if you will put in four good skins," Luka said to theowner.
"It will be six roubles if we put in fresh skins," the Ostjak said. "Wewill put in good skins and grease all the boat, and then it will be thesame as new. The other skins were all new last year."
"No," Luka said. "You said you would build a whole boat larger than thisfor six roubles."
The men talked together. "We will do it for five roubles," they said atlast, and Luka at once agreed to the terms.
There was no time lost. The Ostjaks ordered the women to set about it atonce, and leaving the matter in their hands went off to their fishing.Godfrey asked them to take him with them, leaving Luka to see to therepairs of the boat. The fishing implements were of the roughest kind.The hooks were formed of fish bones, bound together by fine gut; thelines were twisted strips of skin, strong gut attaching the hook tothese lines; the bait was small pieces of fat, varied by strips of fishwith the skin on them. Clumsy as the appliances were, jack, tench, andother fish were caught in considerable numbers, and among them two orthree good-sized salmon. The nets were of coarse mesh, made of hemp,which grows wild in many parts of Siberia. They were some ten feet indepth and some twenty yards long. The upper ends were supported byfloats made of bladders, and the whole anchored across the stream byropes at the extremities, fastened to heavy stones. In these nets aconsiderable quantity of fish were taken. The fishing was over early,for there had been a good supply taken on the previous day, and as atthis time of year they would not keep, it was useless obtaining more.
When they reached shore the common sorts of fish were thrown to thedogs; a dozen of the best picked out, and with these two of the menstarted at once for the nearest village, where they would be sold for afew kopecks; the rest were handed over to the women, while the menproceeded to throw themselves down by the fire and smoke. Godfrey wentto see how the women were getting on with the boat. They had alreadymade a great deal of progress. The skins, which had been chosen by Lukafrom a pile in the hut, were already prepared by having fat rubbed intothem. The hair was left on them, as that would come inside. The badskins had been taken off, the others cut to fit, and now only requiredsewing into their places. As a matter of course Godfrey and Luka tooktheir meals with the Ostjaks and greatly enjoyed the change of diet.They gladdened the hearts of their hosts by producing a packet of tea,of which a handful was poured into a pot of water boiling over the fire.The liquor was drunk with delight by the Ostjak men and women, butGodfrey could not touch it, for some of the fish had already been boiledin the water, which the Ostjaks had not thought it necessary to change.
At night he went out again with them in the boats for a short time tosee them spear salmon. A man holding a large torch made of strips ofresinous wood stood in the bow of the boat, and on either side of himstood an Ostjak holding a long barbed spear. In a short time there wereswirls on the surface of the river. These increased till the water roundthe boat seemed to boil. The Ostjaks were soon at work, and in half anhour twenty fine salmon were lying in the bottom of the boat, and thenhaving caught as much as there was any chance of selling the nativesthey returned to their yourts. The next morning the work on the boatwas resumed, and as all the women assisted it was finished in a veryshort time. Then melted fat was poured into the seams, and the wholeboat vigorously rubbed with the same. By twelve o'clock it was finished.Then there was a little fresh bargaining for two salmon spears, a supplyof torches, half a dozen common fox skins, and three large hides forstretching over the boat at night. Some of the lines and fish-hooks werealso bought, and a few fish for present consumption, then Godfrey andLuka took their places in the boat, and bidding farewell to the Ostjakspaddled out into stream.
The boat was some twenty feet long and six feet wide in the centre. Itwas almost flat-bottomed, and drew but two or three inches of water. Aflat stone had been placed on a layer of clay in the bottom, and theyhad taken with them a bundle of firewood. Godfrey was in the highestspirits. It was true that the real dangers of the journey had not yetbegun, but so far everything had gone very much better than he hadanticipated. He had not thought there would be any chance of recapture,for he knew that unless they came into the towns the Russians took notrouble about the escaped convicts. All the convicts with whom he hadspoken had agreed that there was little trouble in sustaining life inthe forests during summer, for that even if they could not obtain foodfrom the peasants they had only to carry off a sheep at night from thefolds.
"That is why the peasants are so ready to give," one said. "I don't saythat they are not sorry for us, but the real reason is they know that ifthey did not give we should take, and instead of being harmlesswanderers, as they call us, we should be driven to become bandits."
Still Godfrey had anticipated much greater difficulties than they hadmet with; in fact up to the present time it had been simply adelightful tramp through the woods. The next part of the journey would,he expected, be no less pleasant. They had a large and comfortable boat,well adapted for the navigation of the river. There would be nodifficulty as to food, for fish could be obtained in any quantities, andgrain was, he had heard from some of the Tartar prisoners who knew thatportion of the Yenesei, abundant and extraordinarily cheap.
He seated himself in the stern of the boat with a paddle. There was nooccasion to steer, for it mattered in no way whether the boat drove downthe river bow or stern first; but at present it was an amusement to keepher straight with an occasional stroke with the paddle. Luka sat on thefloorboards at the bottom of the boat, and set himself to work tomanufacture from the squirrels' skins two fur caps of the same patternas those worn by the Ostjaks. Godfrey had asked him to do so in orderthat they might be taken for members of that tribe by anyone looking atthem from the villages on the banks. As to the dress it did not signify,as many of the more settled Ostjaks had adopted the Russian costume.Godfrey intended to fish as they drifted along, but they had at presentat least as much fish on board as they could consume while it was good.Luka, as he worked, sang a lugubrious native ditty, while with his knifehe trimmed the skins into shape. Having done this he proceeded to sewthem together with great skill.
"Why, you are quite a tailor, Luka," Godfrey remarked.
"Every one sews with us," Luka replied. "The women do most, but inwinter the boys help, and sometimes the men, to make rugs and robes ofthe skins of the beasts we have taken in the summer. What do you say,shall I leave these tails hanging down all round, excep
t just in front?They often wear them so in winter."
"But it is not winter now, Luka."
"No, it is not winter; but you see the Ostjaks and most of the Russianswear their hair long, quite down to the neck. Our hair is growing, butat present it will only just lie down flat. If I leave on these blacktails round the caps, at a little distance it will look like hair. Then,if you like, I can make two summer caps to put on when we land to buyanything."
"Very well, Luka, I think the idea is a good one. The people do weartheir hair long, and our close crops might excite attention. This isbetter than gold-digging at Kara, isn't it?"
Luka nodded. "No good for man always to work," he said. "Good to liequiet sometimes."
"I don't know that I care about lying quiet generally, Luka, but it ispleasant to do so in a boat. I am keeping a look-out for wild-fowl, itwould make a pleasant change to fish diet."
"Not so far south as this. The Yenesei swarms with them in winter, butin summer they go north. Just before the frost begins you can shoot asmany as you like."
"That will be something to look forward to. When does the weather beginto get cold and dry?"
"Where I lived the nights began to get cold at the end of September, butwe shall be far down the Yenesei by that time, and it will begin earlyin the month."
"We shall be a long way down," Godfrey said, "if we keep on at thispace. We must be going past the banks eight or nine versts an hour."
"That is nothing; it will be more than twice that some times. The Angarabetween the lake and Irkutsk runs fifteen versts. When I was taken eastwe saw barges, each towed up-stream by twenty horses, and it took themsometimes four days, sometimes six, to make forty-five versts."
As they went along they passed several fishing-boats, but as they werekeeping in the middle of the stream, while the boats lay in the slackerwater near the shore, there was no conversation. Twice the Ostjaksshouted to know where they were going, but Luka only replied by pointingdown the stream. The journey was singularly uneventful. At night theylit a torch for a short time, and generally speared sufficient fish forthe next day, but if not, they cut a strip or two from the back of onethey had caught, baited three or four hooks and dropped them overboard,and never failed in a short time to fill up their larder. Sometimes theygrilled the fish over the fire, sometimes fried them, sometimes cut themup in pieces that would go into the kettle, and boiled them.Occasionally, when evening approached, they paddled to the shore near avillage, and Luka, whose Tartar face was in keeping with his dress, wentboldly in and purchased tobacco, tea, and flour, and a large block ofsalt, occasionally bringing off a joint of meat, for which the price wasonly four kopecks, or about a penny a pound; five kopecks being worthabout three halfpence according to the rate of exchange. A hundredkopecks go to the rouble; the silver rouble being worth from two andtenpence to three shillings and twopence, the paper rouble about twoshillings.
At first Godfrey had steered half the night and Luka the other half, butafter the second night they gave this up as a waste of labour, as theboat generally drifted along near the middle of the river, and even hadit floated in-shore no harm would have been done. The fox skins madethem a soft bed, and they spread a couple of the large skins over theboat and were perfectly warm and comfortable. Godfrey thought that on anaverage they did a hundred and twenty miles a day. On the eighth day theriver, which had been widening gradually, flowed into another andgreater stream, the Yenesei. Hitherto they had been travelling almostdue west, but the Yenesei ran north. As they floated down they hadhad much conversation as to their plans. It was now nearly the end ofAugust, and it would not be long before winter was upon them. Anothermonth and the Yenesei would be frozen, and they would be obliged towinter. The question was where should they do so?
SPEARING FISH BY TORCH-LIGHT.]
Now they were on the Yenesei Luka was on his native river, though hishome was fully a thousand miles higher up. Godfrey had at first proposedthat he should disembark here and make his way up the banks home, butthe offer filled Luka with indignation.
"What are you going to do without me?" he asked. "You can talk a littleTartar, quite enough to get on among my people, but how could you get onwith the Ostjaks? Besides, even if I were to leave you, and I wouldrather die than do that, I could not go to my home, for in my nativevillage I should be at once arrested and sent back to the mines. I mightlive among other Tartars, but what good would that be? They would bestrangers to me. Why should I leave you, who have been more than abrother to me, to go among strangers? No, wherever you go I shall gowith you, and when you get to your own land I shall be your servant. Youcan beat me if you like, but I will not leave you. Did you not, for mysake, strike down the man in the prison? Did you not take me with you,and have you not brought me hither? What could I have done alone? If youare tired of me shoot me, but as long as I live I will not leave you."
Godfrey hastened to assure Luka that he had only spoken for his good,that he was well aware that without him he should have little chance ofgetting through the winter, and that nothing therefore was farther fromhis thoughts than to separate himself from him if he was willing toremain. It was some time before Luka was pacified, but when he at lastsaw that Godfrey had no intention whatever of leaving him behind if hewere willing to go with him, he recovered his spirits and entered intothe discussion as to where they had better winter. He had never beenbelow the town of Yeneseisk, but he knew that the Ostjaks were to befound fully a thousand miles below that town, especially on the leftbank of the river, but below that, and all along the right bank, theTunguses and Yuraks were the principal tribes. It was finally agreedthat they should keep on for at least eight hundred miles beyondYeneseisk, and then haul up their boat and camp at some Ostjak village,and there remain through the winter.
"We will get at Yeneseisk whatever you think the Ostjak will prizemost--knives and beads for the women, and some cheap trinkets andlooking-glasses. Some small hatchets, too, would probably be valued."
"Yes," Luka said, "Ostjaks have told me that their kindred far down theriver were more like the people to the extreme north by the sea. Theyare pagans there, and not like us to the south. They have reindeer whichdraw their sledges. They are very poor and know nothing. From them wecan get furs, but we can buy goat-skins and sheep-skins at Yeneseisk."
"We shall have to depend upon them for food," Godfrey said.
"Why, we can get food for ourselves," Luka said somewhat indignantly."When the cold begins, before the river freezes, we shall get greatquantities of fish. They will freeze hard, and last till spring. Then,too, the river will be covered with birds. We shall shoot as many as wecan of these, and freeze them too. Flour we must take with us, but flouris very cheap at Yeneseisk. Corn will not grow there, but they bring itdown in great boats from the upper river."
"But how do they get the boats back, Luka?"
"They do not get them back; they break them up for firewood. Firewood isdear at Yeneseisk, and they get much more for the barges for fires thanit cost to build them in the forests higher up."
"Then how do they do for fires among the Ostjaks?"
"I have heard they do not have wood fires; they kill seals. There arenumbers of them farther down the river, and from their fat they make oilfor lamps and burn these. We shall be in no hurry as we go down. We willfloat near the banks, and may kill some seals. What are you thinkingof?" for Godfrey was looking rather serious.
"I was thinking, Luka, that these things we are thinking of buying, thethings to trade with the Ostjaks, you know, and the flour, and tea, andgoat-skins, and so on, will take a good deal of money. We don't spendmuch now, but when we get into Russia we shall want money. We can't begour way right across the country."
"No;" Luka said, "but we shall not be idle all the winter."
"How do you mean we shall not be idle, Luka?"
"We must hunt; that is what the Ostjaks and Tunguses do. We must getskins of beaver, sable, ermine, and black foxes, and we must sell themat Turukhansk. There are Rus
sian traders there. They do not live therein the winter, but come down in the spring to buy the skins that havebeen taken in the winter."
"That sounds more cheerful," Godfrey said. "You had better get anotherflask of powder, and some more bullets and shot for me, Luka, and somebetter arrow-heads for yourself."
"Yes, we shall want them more than anything. We can do without flour,but we cannot do without weapons."
"Well, you must do the buying, Luka. They will take you for an Ostjak,from some village up the river, who has come in to lay in his stock ofprovisions for the winter. It is of no use my trying to pass here as anative, though in Russia I might be taken as a Russian."