AFLOAT.
It was a pleasant journey through the forest, with its thick and varied
foliage, that afforded a shade from the sun's rays, with patches of open
ground here and there bright with flowers. Godfrey had enjoyed it at
first, but he enjoyed it still more after he had got rid of the convict
badge. He had now no fear of meeting anyone in the woods except
charcoal-burners or woodmen, or escaped convicts like themselves. By
such they would not be suspected of being aught but what they
seemed--two peasants; unless indeed, a hat should fall off. The first
night after leaving the prison Godfrey had done his best to obliterate
the convict brand, by singeing it off as he had done before.
Each day the air grew warmer, and they could pick as they walked any
quantity of raspberries and whortleberries. Luka always filled the
kettle at each streamlet they came to, as they could never tell how long
they would be before they arrived at another, and the supply rendered
them independent, and enabled them to camp whenever they took a fancy to
a spot. They walked steadily from sunrise to sunset, and as they went at
a good pace Godfrey was sure that they were doing fully the thirty-five
miles a day he had calculated on. Although Sundays had not been observed
at the prison, and the work went on those days as on others, Godfrey had
not lost count, and knew that it was on a Monday evening that they had
broken out, and each Sunday was used as a day of rest.
"We are travelling at a good pace, Luka," he said, "and thirty-five
miles a day six days a week is quite enough, so on Sundays we will
always choose a good camping ground by a stream, wash our clothes, and
rest."
They had little trouble about provisions. At lonely houses they could
always obtain them, and there they were received very hospitably, the
peasants often refusing absolutely to accept money, or at any rate
giving freely of all the articles they themselves raised, and taking pay
only for tea and sugar, which they themselves had to purchase. When no
such places could be met with they went down to villages at night, and
never failed to find bread and cakes on the window-sills, though it was
not often that meat was there, for the peasants themselves obtained it
but seldom. Godfrey had no fear of his money running short for a long
time. The six hundred roubles with which he arrived at Kara had been
increased by his earnings during the nine months he had been there. He
had spent but a few kopecks a week for tea and tobacco, and his pay
while he had been a clerk was a good deal larger than while he had been
working in the mine. Luka, too, had saved every kopeck he had received
from the day when Godfrey told him that he would take him with him when
he ran away. He had even given up smoking, and was with difficulty
persuaded by Godfrey to take some tobacco occasionally from him. Between
them in the nine months they had laid by nearly a hundred roubles, and
had, therefore, after deducting the money given by Godfrey to Mikail and
that paid for the gun and clothes, over five hundred roubles for their
journey.
They were glad, indeed, when at last they saw the broad sheet of Lake
Baikal. They had for some time been bearing to the north of west, and
struck the lake some twenty miles from its head. There were a good many
small settlements round the lake, a good deal of fishing being carried
on upon it, although the work was dangerous, for terrible storms
frequently swept down from the northern mountains and sent the boats
flying into port. The lake is one of the deepest in the world, soundings
in many places being over five thousand feet. Many rivers run into the
lake, the only outflow being by the Angara. Baikal is peculiar as being
the only fresh-water lake in the world where seals are found, about two
thousand being killed annually. The shores are in most places extremely
steep, precipices rising a thousand feet sheer up from the edge of the
water, with soundings of a hundred and fifty fathoms a few yards from
their feet. Fish abound in the lake, and sturgeon of large size are
captured there.
Godfrey knew that there were guard-houses with Cossacks on the road
between the northern point of water and the steep mountains that rise
almost directly from it. He had specially studied the geography of this
region, and knew that after passing round the head of the lake there
was a track across the hills by which they would, after travelling a
hundred and fifty miles, strike the main road from Irkutsk to Yakutsk,
near the town of Kirensk, on the river Lena. From Kirensk it would be
but 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 even
nearer to the head of Lake Baikal, also flowed into the Arctic Sea; but
its course was almost due north, and it would be absolutely hopeless to
endeavour to traverse the whole of the north coast of Siberia. The
Angara and the Yenesei, on the other hand, flowed north-west, and fell
into the Arctic Sea near the western boundary of Siberia, and when they
reached that point they would be but a short distance from Russia. It
seemed to him that the only chance was by keeping by a river. In the
great ranges of mountains in the north of Siberia there would be no
means of obtaining food, and to cross such a district would be certain
death. By the rivers, on the other hand, there would at least be no fear
of losing their way. The journey could be shortened by using a canoe if
they could obtain one, and if not, a raft. They would often find little
native villages or huts by the banks, and would be able to obtain fish
from them. Besides, they could themselves catch fish, and might possibly
even winter in some native village. For all these reasons he had
determined on making for the Angara.
Buying a stock of dried fish at a little fishing village on the lake
they walked to within a mile of its head, there they slept for the
night, and started an hour before daybreak, passed the Cossack
guard-house unseen just as the daylight was stealing over the sky, and
then went along merrily.
The road was not much used, the great stream of traffic passing across
Lake Baikal, but was in fair condition, and they made good progress
along it. Long before that, Luka had, after several attempts, made a bow
to his satisfaction. It was formed of three or four strips of tough wood
firmly bound together with waxed twine, they having procured the string
and the wax at a farmhouse on the way. There was one advantage in taking
this unfrequented route. The road between Irkutsk and Tomsk was, as
Godfrey had learned on his outward journey, frequented by bands of
brigands who had no hesitation in killing as well as plundering
wayfarers. Here they were only likely to fall in with convicts who had
escaped from Irkutsk or from convoys along the road, and were for the
most part perfectly harmless, seeking only to spend a summer holiday in
freedom, and knowing that when winter came on they would have to
surrender themselves.
Of such men Godfrey had no fear, his gun and his companion's bow and
arrows rendered them too formidable to be meddled with, and until they
came down upon the main road there was no chance of their meeting police
officers or Cossacks. No villages were passed on the journey, and
Godfrey, therefore, had no longer any hesitation in shooting the
squirrels that frisked about among the trees. He found them, as Luka had
said, excellent eating, although it required three or four of them to
furnish anything like a meal. He soon, however, gave over shooting, for
he found that Luka was at least as certain with his bow as he was with
the gun, with the advantage that the blunt arrow did not spoil the
skins. These, as Luka told him, were valuable, and they would be able to
exchange them for food, the Siberian squirrel furnishing a highly-prized
fur.
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 them
excellent food on their way. After four days' walking across a lofty
plateau they descended into a cultivated valley, and before them rose
the cupolas of Kirensk, while along the valley flowed the Lena, as yet
but a small river, although it would become a mighty flood before it
reached the sea, nearly four thousand miles away. It would have to be
crossed at Kirensk, and they sat down and held a long council as to how
they had best get through the town. They agreed that it must be done at
night, for in the daytime they certainly would have to produce
passports.
"There will not be much chance of meeting a Cossack or a policeman at
one or two o'clock in the morning, Luka, and if there were any about we
ought 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 I
do not mean to be taken. If a fellow should stop us and ask any
questions, and try to arrest us, I will knock him down, and then we will
make 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. If
he does, you let fly one of your blunted arrows at him. That will hit
him quite hard enough, though it won't do him any serious damage. Of
course, if there are several of them we must fight in earnest, but it is
very unlikely we shall meet with even two men together at that time of
night."
Accordingly they went in among some trees and lay down, and did not move
until 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 they
approached the bridge. Godfrey had had some fear that there might be a
sentry 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 town
then, while if we go clattering along in those heavy shoes, every
policeman there may be in the streets will be on the look-out to see who
we are."
They passed, however, through the town without meeting either policeman
or soldier. The streets were absolutely deserted, and the whole
population seemed to be asleep. Once through the town they put on their
shoes again, followed the road for a short distance, and then lay down
under some trees to wait for daylight. Now that they were in the country
they had no fear of being asked for passports, and it was not until the
sun was well up that they continued their journey. Four miles farther
they came upon a village, and went boldly into a small shop and
purchased flour, tea, and such articles as they required. Just as they
came 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 quiet
men and hunters. We pay for what we get, and harm no one who does not
interfere with us. See, we have skins for sale if there is anyone in the
village 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; "but
there was no fear of his being too inquisitive. The authorities do not
really care to arrest the wanderers during the summer months, as they
know they will get them all when winter comes on; besides, in these
villages all the people sympathize with us, and as we are armed, and
not likely to be taken without a fight, it is not probable that one man
would 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 have
ten 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 of
it 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 minute
later the policeman strolled in.
"Wanderers?" he said with a wink. The vodka seller shrugged his
shoulders.
"I did not ask them," he said. "They came to me with a good
recommendation, for they told me that you had sent them here. So after
that it was not for me to question them."
"I told them you bought skins," the policeman said. "They seemed
well-spoken fellows. The one with the bow was a Tartar or an Ostjak, I
should say; he may have been a Yakute, but I don't think so. However, it
matters little to me. If there was anything wrong they ought to have
questioned them at Kirensk; they have got soldiers there. Why should I
interfere with civil people, especially when one has a gun and the other
arrows?"
"That was just my opinion," the other said. "Well, here is a glass of
vodka, and I will take one with you. They are good skins, all shot with
a blunt arrow."
Godfrey and his companion now took matters easily. There was no motive
for hurrying, and they devoted themselves seriously to the chase.
"We must have skins for the winter," Luka said. "I can dress and sew
them. The squirrels are plentiful here, and if we set snares we may
catch some foxes. We shall want some to make a complete suit with caps
for each of us, and skins to form bags for sleeping in; but these last
we can buy on the way. The hunters in summer bring vast quantities of
skins down to the rivers to be taken up to Krasnoiarsk by steamer, and
you can get elk skins for a rouble or two, which will do for sleeping
bags, but they are too thick for clothing unless they are very well
prepared. At any rate we will get as many squirrel skins as we can, both
for clothes, and to exchange for commoner skins and high boots."
It was three weeks after they had left Kirensk before they struck the
Angara, near Karanchinskoe. They had traversed a distance, as the crow
flies, of some eight hundred miles since leaving Kara, but by the route
they had travelled it was at least half as far again, and they had been
little over ten weeks on the journey. Luka had assured Godfrey that they
would have no difficulty in obtaining a boat.
"Everywhere there are fishing people on the rivers," he said. "There are
Tunguses--they are all over Siberia. There are the Ostjaks on all the
rivers. There are my own people, but they are more to the south, near
Minusinsk, and from there to Kasan, and seldom come far north. In summer
everyone fishes or hunts. I could make you a boat with two or three
skins of bullocks or horses or elk, it only needs these and a framework
of wood; but we can buy one for three or four roubles a good one. We
want 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 so
swiftly we shall have no paddling to do, and therefore it will not
matter at all about her being fast; besides, we shall want to carry a
good load. We will not land oftener than we can help, and can sleep on
board, and it will be much more comfortable to have a boat that one can
move 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' huts
all along the banks, and at any of these, if they have not a boat that
will suit us, they will make us one in two or three days."
Avoiding the town, and passing through the villages at night, they kept
along down the river bank for four days. The river was as wide as the
Thames at Greenwich, with a very rapid current. They saw in some of the
quiet 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 of
the Ostjaks, but it was not until the fourth day that they came upon a
group of seven or eight of these tents on the river bank. The men were
all away fishing, but the women came out to look at the strangers. As
Luka spoke their dialect he had no difficulty in opening the
conversation with them. He told them that he and his companion wanted to
go 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 that
the matter could be arranged.
"They will be glad to sell us a boat," Luka said to Godfrey. "They are
very poor the Ostjaks; they have nothing but their tents, their boats,
and their clothes. They live on the fish they catch, but fish are so
plentiful they can scarce get anything for them, so they are very glad
when they can sell anything for money."
The Ostjak men arrived just before it became dark. They wore high
flat-topped fur caps, a dress something like a long loose blouse, and
trousers 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 among
the Buriats in the east, for they were now at a distance from any
convict settlements, and these people would know nothing about the
rewards offered to the natives in the neighbourhood of the mines for the
arrest of prisoners. A present of some tobacco, of which Godfrey had
laid in a large stock, put the Ostjaks into an excellent temper. Fish
were broiling over the fire when they returned, and the two travellers
joined them at their meal. After this was over and pipes lighted the
subject of the boat was discussed. The Ostjaks were perfectly ready to
trade. They said they would sell any of their six boats for three
roubles, and that if they did not think any of these large enough they
would build them a larger one in three days for six roubles.
Godfrey had exchanged twenty roubles for kopecks at the first village
they had passed after reaching the river, as he knew that notes would be
of no use among the native tribes, and without bargaining he accepted
the offer they made. After passing the night stretched by the fire they
went down with the men in the morning to inspect the boats. They were
larger than he had expected to find them, as the fishing population
often shift their quarters by the river and travel in boats, taking
their family, tent, and implements with them.
"What do you think, Luka?"
"They are large enough," Luka said, "but they are not in very good
condition. I should say that farthest one would do very well; but let us
have a look at the state of the skins."
The boat was hauled ashore and carefully examined. Three or four of the
skins were found to be old and rotten; the rest had evidently been
renewed from time to time.
"We will take this if you will put in four good skins," Luka said to the
owner.
"It will be six roubles if we put in fresh skins," the Ostjak said. "We
will put in good skins and grease all the boat, and then it will be the
same as new. The other skins were all new last year."
"No," Luka said. "You said you would build a whole boat larger than this
for six roubles."
The men talked together. "We will do it for five roubles," they said at
last, and Luka at once agreed to the terms.
There was no time lost. The Ostjaks ordered the women to set about it at
once, 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 the
repairs of the boat. The fishing implements were of the roughest kind.
The hooks were formed of fish bones, bound together by fine gut; the
lines were twisted strips of skin, strong gut attaching the hook to
these lines; the bait was small pieces of fat, varied by strips of fish
with the skin on them. Clumsy as the appliances were, jack, tench, and
other fish were caught in considerable numbers, and among them two or
three 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 in
depth and some twenty yards long. The upper ends were supported by
floats made of bladders, and the whole anchored across the stream by
ropes at the extremities, fastened to heavy stones. In these nets a
considerable quantity of fish were taken. The fishing was over early,
for there had been a good supply taken on the previous day, and as at
this time of year they would not keep, it was useless obtaining more.
When they reached shore the common sorts of fish were thrown to the
dogs; a dozen of the best picked out, and with these two of the men
started at once for the nearest village, where they would be sold for a
few kopecks; the rest were handed over to the women, while the men
proceeded to throw themselves down by the fire and smoke. Godfrey went
to see how the women were getting on with the boat. They had already
made a great deal of progress. The skins, which had been chosen by Luka
from a pile in the hut, were already prepared by having fat rubbed into
them. The hair was left on them, as that would come inside. The bad
skins had been taken off, the others cut to fit, and now only required
sewing into their places. As a matter of course Godfrey and Luka took
their 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, but
Godfrey could not touch it, for some of the fish had already been boiled
in 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 to
see them spear salmon. A man holding a large torch made of strips of
resinous wood stood in the bow of the boat, and on either side of him
stood an Ostjak holding a long barbed spear. In a short time there were
swirls on the surface of the river. These increased till the water round
the boat seemed to boil. The Ostjaks were soon at work, and in half an
hour twenty fine salmon were lying in the bottom of the boat, and then
having caught as much as there was any chance of selling the natives
they returned to their yourts. The next morning the work on the boat
was resumed, and as all the women assisted it was finished in a very
short time. Then melted fat was poured into the seams, and the whole
boat vigorously rubbed with the same. By twelve o'clock it was finished.
Then there was a little fresh bargaining for two salmon spears, a supply
of torches, half a dozen common fox skins, and three large hides for
stretching over the boat at night. Some of the lines and fish-hooks were
also bought, and a few fish for present consumption, then Godfrey and
Luka took their places in the boat, and bidding farewell to the Ostjaks
paddled out into stream.
The boat was some twenty feet long and six feet wide in the centre. It
was almost flat-bottomed, and drew but two or three inches of water. A
flat stone had been placed on a layer of clay in the bottom, and they
had taken with them a bundle of firewood. Godfrey was in the highest
spirits. It was true that the real dangers of the journey had not yet
begun, but so far everything had gone very much better than he had
anticipated. He had not thought there would be any chance of recapture,
for he knew that unless they came into the towns the Russians took no
trouble about the escaped convicts. All the convicts with whom he had
spoken had agreed that there was little trouble in sustaining life in
the forests during summer, for that even if they could not obtain food
from the peasants they had only to carry off a sheep at night from the
folds.
"That is why the peasants are so ready to give," one said. "I don't say
that they are not sorry for us, but the real reason is they know that if
they did not give we should take, and instead of being harmless
wanderers, as they call us, we should be driven to become bandits."
Still Godfrey had anticipated much greater difficulties than they had
met with; in fact up to the present time it had been simply a
delightful 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 no
difficulty as to food, for fish could be obtained in any quantities, and
grain was, he had heard from some of the Tartar prisoners who knew that
portion of the Yenesei, abundant and extraordinarily cheap.
He seated himself in the stern of the boat with a paddle. There was no
occasion to steer, for it mattered in no way whether the boat drove down
the river bow or stern first; but at present it was an amusement to keep
her straight with an occasional stroke with the paddle. Luka sat on the
floorboards at the bottom of the boat, and set himself to work to
manufacture from the squirrels' skins two fur caps of the same pattern
as those worn by the Ostjaks. Godfrey had asked him to do so in order
that they might be taken for members of that tribe by anyone looking at
them 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 present
at 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 knife
he trimmed the skins into shape. Having done this he proceeded to sew
them 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 in
winter the boys help, and sometimes the men, to make rugs and robes of
the skins of the beasts we have taken in the summer. What do you say,
shall I leave these tails hanging down all round, except 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 Russians
wear their hair long, quite down to the neck. Our hair is growing, but
at present it will only just lie down flat. If I leave on these black
tails 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 buy
anything."
"Very well, Luka, I think the idea is a good one. The people do wear
their hair long, and our close crops might excite attention. This is
better than gold-digging at Kara, isn't it?"
Luka nodded. "No good for man always to work," he said. "Good to lie
quiet sometimes."
"I don't know that I care about lying quiet generally, Luka, but it is
pleasant to do so in a boat. I am keeping a look-out for wild-fowl, it
would make a pleasant change to fish diet."
"Not so far south as this. The Yenesei swarms with them in winter, but
in summer they go north. Just before the frost begins you can shoot as
many as you like."
"That will be something to look forward to. When does the weather begin
to get cold and dry?"
"Where I lived the nights began to get cold at the end of September, but
we shall be far down the Yenesei by that time, and it will begin early
in the month."
"We shall be a long way down," Godfrey said, "if we keep on at this
pace. 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 Angara
between the lake and Irkutsk runs fifteen versts. When I was taken east
we saw barges, each towed up-stream by twenty horses, and it took them
sometimes four days, sometimes six, to make forty-five versts."
As they went along they passed several fishing-boats, but as they were
keeping in the middle of the stream, while the boats lay in the slacker
water near the shore, there was no conversation. Twice the Ostjaks
shouted to know where they were going, but Luka only replied by pointing
down the stream. The journey was singularly uneventful. At night they
lit a torch for a short time, and generally speared sufficient fish for
the next day, but if not, they cut a strip or two from the back of one
they had caught, baited three or four hooks and dropped them overboard,
and never failed in a short time to fill up their larder. Sometimes they
grilled the fish over the fire, sometimes fried them, sometimes cut them
up in pieces that would go into the kettle, and boiled them.
Occasionally, when evening approached, they paddled to the shore near a
village, and Luka, whose Tartar face was in keeping with his dress, went
boldly in and purchased tobacco, tea, and flour, and a large block of
salt, occasionally bringing off a joint of meat, for which the price was
only four kopecks, or about a penny a pound; five kopecks being worth
about three halfpence according to the rate of exchange. A hundred
kopecks go to the rouble; the silver rouble being worth from two and
tenpence to three shillings and twopence, the paper rouble about two
shillings.
At first Godfrey had steered half the night and Luka the other half, but
after the second night they gave this up as a waste of labour, as the
boat generally drifted along near the middle of the river, and even had
it floated in-shore no harm would have been done. The fox skins made
them a soft bed, and they spread a couple of the large skins over the
boat and were perfectly warm and comfortable. Godfrey thought that on an
average they did a hundred and twenty miles a day. On the eighth day the
river, which had been widening gradually, flowed into another and
greater stream, the Yenesei. Hitherto they had been travelling almost
due west, but the Yenesei ran north. As they floated down they had
had much conversation as to their plans. It was now nearly the end of
August, and it would not be long before winter was upon them. Another
month and the Yenesei would be frozen, and they would be obliged to
winter. The question was where should they do so?
[Illustration: SPEARING FISH BY TORCH-LIGHT.]
Now they were on the Yenesei Luka was on his native river, though his
home was fully a thousand miles higher up. Godfrey had at first proposed
that he should disembark here and make his way up the banks home, but
the offer filled Luka with indignation.
"What are you going to do without me?" he asked. "You can talk a little
Tartar, quite enough to get on among my people, but how could you get on
with the Ostjaks? Besides, even if I were to leave you, and I would
rather die than do that, I could not go to my home, for in my native
village I should be at once arrested and sent back to the mines. I might
live among other Tartars, but what good would that be? They would be
strangers to me. Why should I leave you, who have been more than a
brother to me, to go among strangers? No, wherever you go I shall go
with you, and when you get to your own land I shall be your servant. You
can beat me if you like, but I will not leave you. Did you not, for my
sake, 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 you
are 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 of
getting through the winter, and that nothing therefore was farther from
his thoughts than to separate himself from him if he was willing to
remain. It was some time before Luka was pacified, but when he at last
saw that Godfrey had no intention whatever of leaving him behind if he
were willing to go with him, he recovered his spirits and entered into
the discussion as to where they had better winter. He had never been
below the town of Yeneseisk, but he knew that the Ostjaks were to be
found fully a thousand miles below that town, especially on the left
bank of the river, but below that, and all along the right bank, the
Tunguses and Yuraks were the principal tribes. It was finally agreed
that they should keep on for at least eight hundred miles beyond
Yeneseisk, 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 prize
most--knives and beads for the women, and some cheap trinkets and
looking-glasses. Some small hatchets, too, would probably be valued."
"Yes," Luka said, "Ostjaks have told me that their kindred far down the
river were more like the people to the extreme north by the sea. They
are pagans there, and not like us to the south. They have reindeer which
draw their sledges. They are very poor and know nothing. From them we
can 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 great
quantities 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 we
can of these, and freeze them too. Flour we must take with us, but flour
is very cheap at Yeneseisk. Corn will not grow there, but they bring it
down 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 is
dear at Yeneseisk, and they get much more for the barges for fires than
it 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 are
numbers of them farther down the river, and from their fat they make oil
for lamps and burn these. We shall be in no hurry as we go down. We will
float near the banks, and may kill some seals. What are you thinking
of?" for Godfrey was looking rather serious.
"I was thinking, Luka, that these things we are thinking of buying, the
things to trade with the Ostjaks, you know, and the flour, and tea, and
goat-skins, and so on, will take a good deal of money. We don't spend
much now, but when we get into Russia we shall want money. We can't beg
our 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 get
skins of beaver, sable, ermine, and black foxes, and we must sell them
at Turukhansk. There are Russian traders there. They do not live there
in the winter, but come down in the spring to buy the skins that have
been taken in the winter."
"That sounds more cheerful," Godfrey said. "You had better get another
flask of powder, and some more bullets and shot for me, Luka, and some
better 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 of
provisions for the winter. It is of no use my trying to pass here as a
native, though in Russia I might be taken as a Russian."