Condemned as a Nihilist Part 35

"I expect it has been worse. At any rate, as you can see we have got through it without taking a drop of water on board, thanks to the floating anchor. Now I will pa.s.s the kettle forward to you. Be very careful with it, for it is all the water we have."

"All the water! Why, what has become of the boat?" Luka exclaimed.

"I had to cut her adrift half an hour after the squall struck us. Did not you hear me look out when I took your paddle?"

"I felt you take the paddle, but there was too much noise to hear anything, and I was too frightened to listen. I thought that surely we should go to the bottom. Why did you cut her loose?"

"Because she was tugging so hard. She would have pulled us to pieces, and it was better to let her go than to risk that. She will have drifted the same way we have done, only she will have gone three times as fast, for she was a good deal higher out of water, and the paddles which I fastened on to her head-rope won't have anything like the hold on the water that our spars have. We will keep in the same direction when we get our sails up, and if she has lived through it we shall very likely find her ash.o.r.e somewhere along the coast. Now be sure you lash that kettle securely to the deck-beam, Luka. Put it as near one side as you can get it, then there will be room for you to lie alongside and watch it. But stop! Before you fasten it pour out half a mugful of water for Jack. He doesn't like tea, and there will be nothing but tea for him after we have once made it."

The candle was lighted and fixed under the kettle, but the four wicks gave out such an odour that G.o.dfrey was glad to sit up again and remain outside, until a nudge from Luka told him that the tea was ready. They ate with it some slices of raw bear's ham. Luka offered to cook it, but G.o.dfrey had had the candle put out the moment he got under the cover and would not hear of its being lighted again.

"It is not at all bad raw," he said. "They eat raw ham in Germany, and that last smoking it got was almost as good as cooking it. I expect the sea will have gone down in a few hours, and then we can have a regular meal; but if you were to light that smelly thing again now it would make me ill. Now, Jack, I will light my pipe and look out again, and you shall come out too for a breath of fresh air. I will hold you tight and see that you don't go over."

In twelve hours the sea had almost gone down. The floating anchor was hauled up and unlashed, the masts were stepped, the large sail hoisted, and, free from the dead weight that had hitherto checked her speed, the little craft sped along gaily before the gentle wind, G.o.dfrey keeping her as near as possible dead before it, on the chance that they might catch sight of the boat.

"If we drifted a mile an hour and she drifted three," he said, "she would have gained four-and-twenty miles while we were asleep, and perhaps since then she has been gaining a mile an hour; so she is from thirty-five to forty miles ahead of us, and must be quite half-way across the gulf. Anyhow, we need not begin to look out yet; we are going about four knots an hour, I should think, and I don't suppose she is going more than one. In about ten hours we must begin to look about for her."

Before the end of that time the sea had gone quite down, and the wind had fallen so light that G.o.dfrey thought they were scarce making three knots an hour. "I hope it won't fall altogether," he said, "for as we have no paddles it would be awkward for us."

"Two of the bottom boards will do for paddles."

"Yes, I know that, Luka, I am steering with one of them; but they would do very little good, for they are so thin that they would break off directly we put any strength on to them."

G.o.dfrey occasionally stood up and looked round, but could see no signs of the boat, and indeed could hardly have done so unless he had pa.s.sed within a couple of miles at most of her.

"The wind may have changed a little," he said, "though I don't think it has done so. Anyhow, I will head a little more to the south, so as to be sure that we shall strike the sh.o.r.e to the east both of the Kara River and the point she is likely to drift to."

Four hours later they made out land ahead of them, some six miles away as they guessed, and holding on reached it in two hours and a half's time. They stepped out as soon as they got into shallow water, carried the canoe ash.o.r.e, drank a mug of cold tea and ate some raw meat, and then lay down for a long sleep. When they woke they collected some drift-wood and lighting a fire, cooked some meat.

"What are you going to do, G.o.dfrey?" Luka asked. "Are you going to set out at once to look for the boat?"

"No, we had better wait for a few hours. She may not have drifted to the sh.o.r.e yet, though I do not think she can be far off; still it is as well to give her plenty of time. At any rate we can shoot some birds, so the time won't be lost."

Having made a fair bag and been absent from the canoe for five hours they returned, and after cutting up a capercailzie and grilling it over the fire, they got the boat into the water and started.

They had sailed about eight miles to the west when Luka exclaimed, "There is something there by the sh.o.r.e close to that point. It may be the boat; it may be a rock."

It was another quarter of an hour before G.o.dfrey was able to a.s.sure himself that it was really the boat. "Thank G.o.d for that, Luka!" he exclaimed. "We have reason to thank Him for a great many things. I do so every hour, and I hope you do so too. But finding the boat again safe seems to me the greatest blessing we have had yet; I don't know what we should have done without it."

Another quarter of an hour brought them to the point. The boat lay just afloat, b.u.mping on the sand as each little wave lifted and left her.

They sprang out of the canoe into shallow water and threw out the anchor, and then waded to the boat. She had about four inches of water in her, but was entirely uninjured.

"Hurrah!" G.o.dfrey shouted, "she is as good as ever. Now, Luka, get everything out of her as soon as you can, then we can turn her over and empty her, put the things in again, and be off at once. We have got no time to lose, for you must remember there is not much more than a quart of cold tea left in the kettle. I am sure the Kara River can't be very far off, but I can't say whether it is three miles or thirty."

In half an hour they were again afloat and working their paddles to a.s.sist the sail. Two hours later Luka said, "Huts on that point ahead of us."

"So there are," G.o.dfrey said. "Six or eight of them and a lot of cattle."

"Reindeer!" Luka corrected. "Samoyede village."

"Why, there must be hundreds of them," G.o.dfrey said in surprise.

"Yes, the Ostjaks told me in our old camp that many of the Samoyedes had five hundred, and some of them a thousand reindeer. They keep them just as we do cattle. Their wealth is counted by their reindeer. They make their clothes of its skin; its milk and flesh are their chief food. It draws their sledges, and when they want money they can sell some of them."

"Did you ask how much they can be sold for?"

"Yes, the Ostjaks said that they were worth here two or three roubles each."

"Then if there are many of these encampments along the sh.o.r.e, Luka, we need not trouble about food; and if anything happens to our boat we can make a couple of sledges, buy four reindeer, and start by land."

"Then we should have to wait until winter," Luka said.

"Yes, that would be a nuisance; but it would not be so very long to wait. I had no idea reindeer were so cheap. If I had I think instead of spending the winter hunting I would have bought some reindeer and started to drive. Still it would have been a terrible journey, and perhaps we have done better as it is. Well, shall we land? What do you think?"

"We don't want anything," Luka said. "The Samoyedes are generally friendly. They are not like the Tunguses and Yuraks. But you see there are but two of us, and we have hatchets and knives and other things they value. If we wanted anything I should say let us land, but as we don't it would be better to go on."

"You are right, Luka. I don't suppose there would be any risk of being robbed; still it is just as well not to run even the smallest chance of trouble when everything is going on so well."

On pa.s.sing the point on which the encampment was situated they saw a wide opening. "The Kara!" G.o.dfrey exclaimed joyously. "We will cross to the other side, and coast up on that sh.o.r.e till the water becomes fresh."

It required four hours' sailing and paddling before they got beyond the influence of the sea, then they landed, shot and hunted for a couple of days, took in a fresh supply of water, and started again.

"We have pa.s.sed the line of the Ural Mountains now," G.o.dfrey said. "The Kara rises in that range. We may almost consider ourselves in Russia."

One morning Luka woke G.o.dfrey soon after he had lain down for his turn of sleep.

"Fog coming," he said.

G.o.dfrey sat up and looked round. "That it is, Luka. We must head for sh.o.r.e directly." He seized his paddle, but the fog cloud had drifted rapidly down upon them, and before they were half-way to sh.o.r.e drifts of white cloud floated past them on the water, and five minutes later they were surrounded by a dense white wall, so thick that even the canoe towing behind was invisible. They ceased paddling.

"There is nothing to do but to wait," G.o.dfrey said. "Get your fur coat on; it is bitterly cold. There is one comfort, what wind there is is towards the sh.o.r.e, and we shall drift that way."

"I can't feel any wind at all," Luka said.

"No, it is very slight; but there must have been some to bring this fog down from the north. We were not more than half a mile from the sh.o.r.e when it closed in upon us. If we only drift fifty yards an hour we shall be there in time. Let us have a cup of tea and then we will rig up the cover and turn in. We have a lot of sleep to make up for. There is one comfort, there is no chance of our being run down."

G.o.dfrey saw by his watch when he woke that he had been asleep for four hours, and he sat up and looked round. The fog was as thick as before.

The movement woke Luka, and he too sat up.

"Listen, Luka!" G.o.dfrey exclaimed as he was about to speak. "I heard a bird chirp." The sound was repeated. "It is over there," G.o.dfrey said.

"Hurrah! we shall soon be ash.o.r.e," and they seized their paddles.

After rowing for a minute or two they stopped and again listened. "There it is again," G.o.dfrey said; "right ahead. Paddle gently, Luka; we sha'n't see the sh.o.r.e until we are on it, and we must not risk running head on to a rock." Presently something dark appeared just in front of the canoe.

"Hold water!" G.o.dfrey exclaimed, and as they stopped her way the boat drifted quietly against a rock. They brought her broadside to it and stepped out.

"That is a comfort. The fog can last for a week now. Let us get the canoe ash.o.r.e. We can moor the boat; the water is as smooth as gla.s.s, and there is no risk whatever of her damaging herself. Bring an armful of firewood ash.o.r.e," he went on as they laid the canoe down gently on a flat rock. "I will look about for a place for the tent."

"Do not go far or you will lose yourself."