AN ESCAPE.
The evenings were spent principally in conversations about Siberia,
Godfrey being eager to learn everything that he could about its
geography and peoples.
Alexis told him all he knew as to the mountains and rivers, the various
native tribes, the districts where the villages were comparatively
numerous, and the mighty forests that, stretching away to the Arctic
Sea, could hardly be said to be explored. Books and paper were forbidden
to the political prisoners, and so strict were the regulations that the
warders would not under any considerations bring them in. But Godfrey
wrote all the particulars that he judged might in any way be useful with
a burnt piece of stick upon the table as Alexis gave them, and then
learned them by heart, washing them off after he had done so.
But few of the details Alexis could give him would be of any use in the
attempt he first intended to make. The southern frontier was so
temptingly close that it seemed absurd to turn from that and to attempt
a tremendous journey north, involving the certainty of having to
struggle through an Arctic winter, and to face the difficulties of the
passage west, either by land or sea. Beyond the fact that from Irkutsk
he would have to make for the southern point of Lake Baikal, some sixty
miles away, and then strike about south-east for another two hundred
through a country inhabited almost entirely by Buriats, the doctor could
tell him little.
"Kiakhta," he said, "or rather, as far as the Russians are concerned,
Troitzkosavsk, which is a sort of suburb of Kiakhta, is the frontier
town. Kiakhta is a sort of neutral town inhabited only by merchants, and
by a treaty between Russia and China no officer or stranger is allowed
to sleep there. Across the frontier, a few miles away, is the Chinese,
or I suppose I should say the Mongol, town of Maimatchin. Beyond the
fact that the people about there are Mongols rather than Chinese, and
that such religion as they have is that of Thibet rather than China, for
their priests are called lamas, I know nothing except that the caravan
route from Kiakhta to Pekin is somewhere about a thousand miles, and
that the camels do it in about thirty-five days."
"Then they make about thirty miles a day," Godfrey said. "I suppose
there must be wells at their halting-places."
"Ah! that is another matter, Godfrey. You see a camel can go three days
without water easily enough, and of course they would carry skins of
water for the travellers."
"Oh, that is no odds," Godfrey said. "One could walk the ninety miles
easily enough in three days, and there would be no difficulty in
carrying water enough for that time. Besides, one would of course join a
caravan if one could. Luckily enough I had two hundred roubles in notes
when I was captured, and they restored them as well as my watch and
other things when I started. I suppose the Mongols are just as fond of
money as other people. The Chinese are, certainly, and I might get some
Chinese tea-merchant to let me go in his train for a consideration."
The Russian laughed. "'Pon my word, Godfrey, I begin to think you will
do it."
"There can't be anything impossible in doing it," Godfrey said. "Why,
did not Burton disguise himself and go with a caravan to Mecca and visit
the holy places, and that was twenty times as difficult and dangerous.
Going along the caravan route of course the difficulty is the language
and the Buriats. If one could talk Mongol, or whatever the fellows call
their language, it would be easy sailing; but I own that it is a
difficult thing to get along and explain what you want with people who
cannot understand a word you say. I suppose the Buriats speak Russian."
"I should say that a great many of them do, Godfrey. I know there are
missionaries and schools among them, and some of them live in settled
villages, though they are so wedded to their own wandering life that
they build their houses on the exact model of their tents, with a hole
in the roof to let the smoke out. Still, as they deal with the towns and
come in to sell their cattle and sheep and herds and so on, no doubt the
greater part of them, at any rate on this side of the frontier, speak a
certain amount of Russian. The difficulty will be to persuade them not
to give you up."
"But I can pay them more not to give me up than they can get for doing
so," Godfrey said.
"They would kill you for what you have, Godfrey. They are permitted to
kill runaways, in fact encouraged to do so, and the reward is the same
whether they are brought in dead or alive."
"I should think, Alexis, it is easier to bring in a live man than a dead
one."
"I don't know," the Russian laughed. "I don't think a Buriat would find
it very easy to take you any distance alive, but there would be no
trouble in chucking you into a cart and bringing you here after the
preliminary operation of knocking you on the head."
Godfrey smiled. "You forget there would be some preliminary trouble in
knocking me on the head, Alexis; but seriously, I don't think any
natives who have been in contact at all with civilization are disposed
to take life without some strong motive. Of course robbery would be a
motive, but I should certainly have nothing about me that a Tartar or a
Buriat--I suppose they are all something of the same thing--would covet.
You were telling me yourself that many of these people have very large
flocks and herds. Is it likely such people as these would cut a
stranger's throat on the chance of finding a few roubles in his pocket?"
"Well, one would think not, Godfrey; but of course they are not all
rich."
"No; they may not be rich, but you say they are always nomads. Well,
people who are nomads must always have some sort of animals to carry
their tents, and a certain amount, anyhow, of cattle, horses, or sheep.
No, I don't at all believe in cutting throats without a motive."
"But let us understand a little more about your intentions, Godfrey. Do
you mean to climb over that fence and then to stroll away to the south
with your hands in your pockets and your hat on one side of your head,
and to ask the first man you come upon to direct you to the shortest
road to Pekin?"
Godfrey laughed. "No, not quite that, Alexis. These clothes did very
well in St. Petersburg, and though they are all the worse for the
journey here I daresay they would pass well enough in the streets of
Irkutsk. The first thing to do will be to get some clothes, for as far
as I could see coming along the natives all dress a good deal like the
Russians. I suppose in winter they wrap up more in furs, or they may
wear their furs differently, but any sort of peasant dress would do, as
it would not excite attention, while this tweed suit would be singular
even in the streets here."
"That fur-lined great-coat would be all right, Godfrey."
"Yes. I bought that at St. Petersburg. I don't know that it would go
very well with a peasant's dress, and it is certainly not suitable for
the time of year, though I shall take it with me if I can. If I could
roll it up and carry it as a knapsack it would be first rate for
sleeping in, besides it might do as something to exchange when one gets
to places where money is of little use. If I can get hold of a pistol
anyhow I shall be glad. A pistol will always produce civility if one
meets only one or two men. The other things I should want are a box of
matches for making fires, a good knife, or better still, a small axe,
for chopping wood, and a bottle or skin for holding water."
"You will be seized and sent back in a week, Godfrey."
"Very well, then, there will be no harm done. I regard this as a sort of
preliminary investigation. I shall ascertain the difficulties of travel
in Siberia, and shall learn lessons for next time. I believe myself the
true way is to strike one of the great rivers, to build or steal a boat,
to go down in it to the Arctic Sea, and then to coast along until one
gets to Norway; but that is a big affair, and besides it is a great deal
too late in the year for it. When I attempt that I shall make off as
early in the spring as possible."
"Remember you may be flogged when you are caught, Godfrey."
"Well, I shouldn't like to be flogged, but as you say the convicts don't
think much of it, I suppose I could bear it. They used to flog in our
army and navy till quite lately."
"It is a dishonour," Alexis exclaimed passionately.
Godfrey shrugged his shoulders.
"The dishonour lies in the crime and not in the punishment," he said.
"At our great public schools in England fellows are flogged. Well, there
is no disgrace in it if it's only for breaking the rules or anything of
that sort, but it would be a horrible dishonour if it were for thieving.
All that sort of thing is absurd. I believe flogging is the best
punishment there is. It is a lot better to give a man a couple of dozen
and send him about his business, than it is to keep him for a year in
prison at the public expense, and to have to maintain his wife and
children also at the public expense while he is there. Besides, I
thought you said the other day that they did not flog political
prisoners."
"Well, they don't, at least not at any of the large prisons; but in some
of the small establishments, with perhaps a brutal drunken captain or
major as governor, no doubt it may be done sometimes."
"Well, I will take my chance of it."
"And when do you think of starting?" Alexis asked after a pause.
"Directly. I have only to decide how I am to get out after the door is
locked, and to make a rope of some sort to climb the fence with. The
blankets tied together will do for that. As to the getting out there is
no difficulty. One only has to throw a blanket over that cross beam, get
up on that, and get off one of the lining boards, displace a few tiles,
crawl through."
"I have half a mind to go with you, Godfrey."
"Have you, Alexis? I should be awfully glad, but at the same time I
would not say a word to persuade you to do it. You know I make light of
it, but I know very well that there will be some danger and a tremendous
lot of hardship to be gone through."
"I don't think I am afraid of that, Godfrey," Alexis said seriously. "It
is not that I have been thinking of ever since you began to talk to me
of getting away. I consider it is a hundred to one against success; but,
as you say, if we fail and get brought back no great harm is done. If we
get killed or die of hunger and thirst, again no harm is done, for
certainly life is not a thing to cling to when one is a prisoner in
Siberia; but it is not that. You see I am differently situated to you.
If you do succeed in getting away you go home, and you are all right; if
I succeed in getting away what is to become of me? I speak Russian and
German, but there would be no return for me to Russia unless some day
when a new Czar ascends the throne, or on some such occasion, when a
general amnesty is granted; but even that would hardly extend to
political prisoners. What am I to do? So far as I can see I might
starve, and after all one might almost as well remain here as starve in
Pekin or in some Chinese port. Granted that I could work my way back to
Europe on board ship, what should I do if I landed at Marseilles or
Liverpool? I could not go through the streets shouting in German 'I am a
doctor, who wants to be cured?'"
"No, Alexis," Godfrey agreed, "you could not well do that; but I will
tell you what you could do. Of course at the first place I get to, where
there is a telegraph to England, I will send a message to my father to
cable to some firm there to let me have what money I require. Very well.
Then, of course, you would go home with me to England, and there is one
thing I could promise you, and that is a post in my father's office. You
know we trade with Russia, and though our correspondence is generally
carried on in German, I am quite sure that my father would, after you
had been my companion on such a journey as that we propose, make a
berth for you in the office to undertake correspondence in Russian and
German, and that he would pay a salary quite sufficient for you to live
in comfort; or if you would rather, I am sure that he would find you
means for going out and settling, say in the United States, in the part
where German is the general language."
"Then in that case, Godfrey," the Russian said, shaking his hand warmly,
"I am your man. I think I should have gone with you anyhow; but what you
have said quite decides me. Now, then, what is our first proceeding?"
Godfrey laughed.
"I should say to take an inventory of our belongings, Alexis, or rather
of your belongings, for mine are very briefly described. Two hundred
roubles in notes, a watch, a pocket-knife, the suit of clothes I stand
up in, half a dozen pairs of socks, and three flannel shirts I bought on
the way, one great-coat lined with fur; I think that is about all. It is
a very small share. Yours are much more numerous."
"More numerous, but not much more useful," Alexis said. "They let me
bring one large portmanteau of clothes, but as I can't carry that away
on my shoulders it is of very little use. All I can take in that way is
a suit of clothes and a spare flannel shirt or two, and some socks. I
have got two cases of surgical instruments. I will take a few of the
most useful and some other things, a pair of forceps for instance. We
may come across a Tartar with a raging tooth, and make him our friend
for ever by extracting it, and I will put a bandage or two and some
plaster in my pocket. They are things one ought always to carry, for one
is always liable to get a hurt or a sprain. As to money, I have a
hundred and twenty roubles; they are all in silver. I changed my paper
at Tobolsk, thinking that silver would be more handy here. Unfortunately
they took away my pistol, but a couple of amputating knives will make
good weapons. I have got a leather waistcoat, which I will cut up and
make from it a couple of sheaths. Of course I have got fur cloaks, one
of them a very handsome one. I will take that and another. There ought
to be no difficulty whatever in getting some one to give us two
peasants' dresses in exchange for that coat, for all these people know
something of the value of furs."
"Yes, and if you can get a gun and some ammunition thrown into the
bargain, Alexis, it will be most useful, for we may have to depend upon
what we shoot sometimes."
"Yes, that would be a great addition, Godfrey. Well, we will set about
making the sheaths at once. I have got a store of needles and stout
thread."
"They will be useful to take with us," Godfrey said, "not only for
mending our clothes, if we want it, but for exchange. Women have to sew
all over the world, and even the most savage people can appreciate the
advantage of a good needle."
"That is so, Godfrey. I have got a packet of capital surgical needles,
and some silk. I will put them in with the others; they won't take up
much room. Well, shall we start to-morrow night?"
"I think we had better wait for two or three days," Godfrey said. "We
must save up some of our food."
"Yes, we shall want some bread," Alexis agreed. "We can't well get that
in through the warders, it would look suspicious, but I will get in some
meat through them. We have got some of the last lot left, so we can do
with very little bread."
For the next two days they found plenty to occupy them, while their
stock of bread was accumulating. One of the Russian's coats was cut up
and made into two bags like haversacks, with a band to pass over the
shoulder, for carrying their belongings. Straps were make of the cloth
for fastening the great-coats knapsack fashion. They agreed that however
long they might have to wait they must choose a stormy night for their
flight, as otherwise they could hardly break through the roof and scale
the fence without being heard by the sentries who kept watch night and
day. They were eager to be off, for it was already the end of July, and
the winter would be severe in the country over which they had to travel.
On the fourth day a heavy rain set in, and in the evening it began to
blow hard.
"Now is our time," Godfrey said; "nothing could have been better."
They had already loosened two of the lining boards of the roof, and as
soon as they had been locked up for the night they removed these
altogether. They packed their haversacks with the articles they had
agreed to take, with six pounds of bread each and some meat, rolled four
blankets up and knotted them tightly together, strapped up the three
fur-lined cloaks, and placed the knives in their belts. Then without
much difficulty they prised up one of the thick planks with which the
hut was roofed. Godfrey got through the opening, and Alexis passed out
to him the haversacks and coats, and then joined him, and they slid down
the roof and dropped to the ground.
The paling was but twenty yards behind the huts. As soon as they reached
it Godfrey climbed upon his companion's shoulders, threw the loop of a
doubled rope over one of the palisades and climbed on to the top. Then
with the rope he pulled up the coats and haversacks and dropped them
outside. Alexis pulled himself up by the rope; this was then dropped on
the outside and he slid down by it. Godfrey shifted the rope on to the
point of one of the palings, so that it could be easily shaken off from
below, and then slipped down it. The rope shaken off and two of the
blankets opened, the haversacks hung over their shoulders, and the
great-coats strapped on, each put one of the twisted blankets over his
shoulder, scarf fashion, wrapped the other round as a cloak, and then
set out on their way. Fortunately the prison lay on the south side of
the town and at a distance of half a mile from it; and as their course
to the extremity of Lake Baikal lay almost due south, they were able to
strike right across the country.
The wind was from the north, and they had therefore only to keep their
backs to it to follow the right direction. It was half-past ten when
they started, for the nights were short, and had it not been that the
sky was covered with clouds and the air thick with rain, it would not
have been dark enough for them to make the attempt until an hour later.
By three o'clock it was light again, but they knew there was little
chance of their escape being discovered until the warders came to unlock
the hut at six in the morning, as the planks they had removed from the
roof were at the back of the hut, and therefore invisible to the
sentries.
"No doubt they will send a few mounted Cossacks out to search for us, as
we are political prisoners," Alexis said; "but we may calculate it will
be seven o'clock before they set out, and as this is the very last
direction they will imagine we have taken we need not trouble ourselves
about them; besides, we shall soon be getting into wooded country. I
believe it is all wood round the lower end of the lake, and we shall be
quite out of the way of traffic, for everything going east from Irkutsk
is taken across the lake by steamer."
After twelve hours' walking, with only one halt of half an hour for
refreshment, they reached the edge of the forest, and after again making
a hearty meal of their bread and cold meat, and taking each a sip from a
bottle containing cold tea, they lay down and slept until late in the
afternoon.
"Well, we have accomplished so much satisfactorily," Alexis said. "Now
we have to keep on to Kaltuk, at the extreme south-western point of the
lake. It is a very small place, I believe, and that is where we must get
what we want. We shall be there by the evening. We shall be just right,
as it wouldn't do for us to go in until it is pretty nearly dark. A
place of that sort is sure to have a store where they sell clothes and
other things, and trade with the people round."
They struck the lake a mile or two from its extremity, and following it
until they could see the roofs of the houses lay down for an hour until
it should be dark enough to enter.
"We had better put on our fur coats," Alexis said. "The people all wear
long coats of some fashion or other, and in the dusk we shall pass well
enough."
It was a village containing some fifty or sixty houses, for the most
part the tent-like structures of the Buriats. They met no one in the
street, and kept on until they saw a light in a window of a house larger
than any others, and looking in saw that it was the place for which they
were in search. Opening the door they went in and closed it behind them.
A man came out from the room behind the shop. He stopped for a moment at
seeing two strangers, then advanced with a suspicious look on his face.
"Do you want a bargain?" Alexis asked him abruptly.
"I have little money to buy with," he said sullenly.
"That matters little, for we will take it out in goods."
The man hesitated. Alexis drew out the long keen amputating knife. "Look
here," he said. "We are not to be fooled with. You may guess what we are
or not; it is nothing to us and nothing to you. We want some of your
goods, and are ready to give you good exchange for them; we are not
robbers. Here is this coat; look at it; it is almost unworn. I have used
it only one winter. You can see it is lined with real sable, and it cost
me three hundred roubles. At any rate, it is worth a hundred to you,
even if you take out the lining, sell the skins separately, and burn the
coat. Examine it for yourself."
The shopkeeper did so. "They are good skins," he said, and Alexis could
see that he quite appreciated their value.
"Now," Alexis said, "I want two peasant dresses complete, coat,
trousers, high boots, and caps. What do you charge for them?"
"Twenty roubles each suit."
"Very well. Pick two suits the right size for us, and lay them down on
the counter. Now we want two pounds of brick-tea and two pounds of
tobacco. We want two skins that will each hold a gallon or a gallon and
a half of water, and a tin pot that will hold a quart, and two tin
drinking mugs. We want a gun and ammunition; it need not be a new one. I
see you have got half a dozen standing over there in the corner. What do
you charge your customers for those? I see they are all old single
barrels and flint-locks."
"I charge fifteen roubles a piece."
"Well we will take two of them, and we want two pounds of powder and six
pounds of shot, and a couple of dozen bullets. Now add that up and see
how much it comes to."
"Ninety-two roubles," the man said.
"Well, I tell you what. I will give you this cloak and twelve paper
roubles for them. I don't suppose the goods cost you fifty at the
outside, and you will get at least a hundred for the skins alone."
"I will take it," the man said. "I take it because I cannot help it."
"You take it because you are making an excellent bargain," Alexis said
fiercely. "Now, mind, if you give the alarm when we have gone it will be
worse for you. They won't catch us; but you will see your house on fire
over your head before the week is past."
Godfrey placed a ten-rouble note and two one-rouble notes on the table;
they gathered up their goods and made them into a bundle, carefully
loaded their guns, and put the powder and shot into their haversacks.
Then Alexis lifted the bundle, and shouldering the guns they left the
shop.
"Will he give the alarm, do you think?" Godfrey asked.
"Not he. He is thoroughly well satisfied. I daresay he will get a
hundred and fifty roubles for the coat; besides, he knows that escaped
convicts are desperate men, and that we should be likely to execute my
threat. Besides, I don't suppose he would venture to stir out. For
aught he knows we may be waiting just outside the shop to see what he
does, and he will fear that he might get that hungry-looking knife into
him if he came out to raise the alarm."
All was quiet, and they were soon beyond the limits of the village, and
struck out for the country.
They held on for two or three miles, filled their water-skins at a
little stream running towards the lake, and then entering a wood pushed
on for some little distance, lighted a fire, and made themselves some
tea.
"We are fairly off now, Godfrey. We have become what they call
wanderers, and should be safe enough among the Russian peasants, most of
whom have been convicts in their time, in the villages north, for they
are always willing enough to help men who have taken to the woods. Well,
except in the villages, of which there are few enough about here, we are
not likely to come upon them. From here to the frontier are Buriats, and
indeed beyond the frontier. However as we have both got guns, we need
not be afraid of any small party. Of course some of them have guns too;
but I don't suppose they will be fools enough to risk throwing their
lives away for nothing. At any rate there is one comfort. There is
nothing to show that we are political prisoners now. We might be honest
peasants if it were not for these confounded heads of hair."
"I should think," Godfrey said, "we had better get rid of our hair
altogether. It will be some time before it grows, but anything will be
better than it is now."
"We have got no scissors, Godfrey, and we have no soap. If we had, those
knives of ours are sharp enough to shave with."
"We can singe it off," Godfrey said. "Not now, but in the morning when
we can see. I will do it for you, and you can do it for me. I would
rather be bald-headed altogether than be such a figure as I am now."
Accordingly in the morning they singed off their hair with red-hot
brands, then they changed their clothes for those they had obtained the
night before, folded up their great-coats, divided the tea, tobacco, and
the greater part of the powder and shot between them, put a portion in
their haversacks, and rolled the rest up in the coats, then strapped
these to their shoulders and started on their way.
"Now I feel ready for anything," Alexis said as they tramped along. "We
have no weight to speak of to carry, and we have means of getting a meal
occasionally. Now if we keep a little west of south we shall strike the
Selenga river, which runs through Maimatchin, and then we shall be in
China. We shall have to avoid the town, because I know there is a treaty
between Russia and China about sending back exiles who cross the
frontier. Still, when we get there we are at the starting-place of the
caravans."
"Is it a desert the whole distance?"
"No. The first part is a mountainous country with two or three rivers to
cross. I don't think the real desert is more than eight or ten days'
march across. We shall certainly have no difficulty about water for some
time to come. There are plenty of squirrels in these woods; at least I
expect so, for they abound in all the forests. We must knock some of
them over if we can. I believe they are not bad eating, though I never
tried one. Then by the streams we ought to be able to pick up some wild
duck, though of course at this time of year the greater portion of them
are far north. Still I have great hopes we shall be able to keep
ourselves in food with the assistance of what we may be able to buy
occasionally. I think the only thing we have got to fear at this part of
our journey is the Buriats. The thing I am really afraid of is the
getting into China. I don't mean the frontier here; this is Mongolia,
and it is only nominally Chinese; but when we get across the desert and
enter China itself, I tell you frankly I don't see our way. We neither
of us can speak a word of the language. We have no papers, and we may be
arrested and shut up as suspicious vagabonds. There is one thing; at
Kalgan, which is close to the Great Wall, there are Russian traders, and
I should go boldly to them and ask their help. Russians out of Russia
are sure to be liberal, though they may not dare to be so when they are
at home, and I feel sure they would help us when we tell them our story,
if we can only get at them. However we need not trouble ourselves much
about that at present."
Once beyond the forest they were in an undulating country, the hills
sometimes rising to a considerable height. Occasionally they saw in the
distance encampments of natives, with sheep, cattle, and horses in
considerable numbers. They kept clear of these, although occasionally
they had to make wide detours to do so. Time was no object to them, and
they made but short journeys, for the Russian, who had never been
accustomed to walk long distances, had blistered both his feet badly on
the first night's journey, and the subsequent travelling had added to
the inflammation. On the fourth evening they halted for the night on a
little rivulet, after making only five or six miles.
"It is no use, Alexis," Godfrey said; "we must stop here until your feet
are quite well. We shall gain by it rather than lose, for when you are
quite right again we could do our five-and-twenty or thirty miles a day
easily, and might do forty at a push; but your feet will never get well
if you go on walking, and it makes your journey a perfect penance; so I
vote we establish ourselves here for three or four days. There is water
and wood, and I dare say I shall be able to shoot something--at any rate
you can't go on as you are now."
"It is horribly annoying," Alexis said, "to be knocked up like this just
at the start."
"But it makes no difference," Godfrey urged. "We are not due at Pekin on
any given day. It is very pleasant out here, where one can enjoy one's
freedom and exult that there is no policeman or Cossack watching every
movement. It would make no difference to me if we stopped here for a
month. Now let me pull those boots off for you, then you can sit with
your feet in this little pool."
"Warm water would be better, Godfrey. If you will get the kettle to boil
I will dip my two flannel shirts in and wrap them round and keep on at
that. That will be better than cold water."
"All right! I will soon get a fire alight. By Jove, they are bad!" he
exclaimed, as Alexis pulled off his stocking. "They must have been
hurting you desperately. Why did you not say how bad they were two days
ago? We might as well have stopped then as now."
"I hoped they would have got better when I put on these big boots
instead of those I started with. But I did not think they were as bad as
they are. I am afraid this is going to be a troublesome business,
Godfrey."
"Well, it can't be helped," Godfrey said cheerfully. "At any rate, don't
worry on my account."
The Russian's feet were indeed greatly swollen and inflamed. The skin
had been rubbed off in several places, and the wounds had an angry look,
their edges being a fiery red, which extended for some distance round
them.
"Well, you have plenty of pluck, Alexis, or you never could have gone on
walking with such feet as those. I am sure I could not have done so."
"We thought over most difficulties, Godfrey, that we might possibly have
to encounter, but not of this."
"No, we did not think of it, though we might really have calculated upon
it. After being three or four months without walking twenty yards it is
only natural one's feet should go at first. We ought to have brought
some soap with us--I do not mean for washing, though we ought to have
brought it for that--but for soaping the inside of our stockings. That
is a first-rate dodge to prevent feet from blistering. Well, I must see
about the fire. I will go up to those trees on the hillside. I
daresay I shall be able to find some sticks there for lighting it. These
bushes round here will do well enough when it is once fairly burning,
but we shall have a great trouble to get them to light to begin with."
[Illustration: A SUPPER OF ROASTED SQUIRRELS.]
In half an hour he was back with a large faggot.
"It is lucky," he said, "there is a fallen tree. So we shall have no
difficulty about firewood. We ought to have brought a hatchet when we
got the other things. These knives are first-rate for cutting meat and
that sort of thing, but they are of no use for rough work. My old knife
is better."
While he was talking he was engaged in cutting some shavings off the
sticks. Then he split up another into somewhat larger pieces, and laying
them over the shavings, struck a match, and applied it. The flame shot
up brightly, and in five minutes there was an excellent fire, on which
the kettle was placed.
"We had better have our dinner first, Godfrey. Then I can go on steadily
with these fomentations while you take your gun and look round."
"Perhaps that will be the best way," Godfrey said. "We have nothing left
but six squirrels. We finished the last piece of bread this morning and
the meat last night. How had we better do these squirrels?"
"I will skin them, Godfrey, while you are seeing to the fire. Then we
will spit them on a ramrod, and I will hold them in the flame."
"I think we can manage better than that," Godfrey said, and he went to
the bushes and cut two sticks of a foot long with a fork at one end. He
stuck these in the ground, on the opposite sides of the fire. "There,"
he said, "you can lay the ramrod on these forks, and all you have got to
do is to give it a turn occasionally."
"How long do you suppose these things want cooking?"
"Not above five minutes, I should think. I know that a steak only takes
about eight minutes before a good fire, and these little beggars are not
half the thickness of a steak. They are beginning to frizzle already,
and the water is just on the boil."
The squirrels were pronounced very good eating. When the meal was over
Godfrey filled the kettle again and gave it to Alexis, and then, taking
his gun, started down the valley. He was away three hours, and brought
back twenty birds of various sorts, but for the most part small.
"No very great sport," he said as he emptied his haversack. "However,
they will do for breakfast, and I may have better luck to-morrow. There
are some fish in the pools, but I do not see how we are to get them. I
saw one spring out of the water; it must have weighed a couple of
pounds."
"You might shoot them, Godfrey, if you could find a place where the bank
is pretty high so as to look down on the water."
"So I could; I did not think of that. I must try to-morrow."
"If it hadn't been for my feet," Alexis said, "we should have been down
on the Selenga to-morrow, and we had calculated on being able to buy
food at one of the villages there."
"We shall be able to hold on here," Godfrey said, "for a few days, and I
expect that one day's good tramp, when your feet are better, will take
us there. After that we ought to have no great difficulty till we get
down near the desert."