Condemned as a Nihilist Part 26

Luka nodded, and went off. G.o.dfrey paddled the boat out a short distance, let down the stone, and began to fish. He was under no real uneasiness as to the young Tartar, there was nothing about him to distinguish him from other natives, and as these would be about this time arriving in considerable numbers at Yeneseisk to sell the skins of the animals they had taken in the chase during the summer, and to lay in stores for the winter, it was unlikely in the extreme that anyone would even question him. Such indeed was the case. There were numbers of natives in the stores of the Russian traders, and he made his purchases without any question whatever being asked. He bought rather more hatchets, knives, and trinkets than they had agreed upon, and two sacks of flour, although he deemed the latter to be a luxury that they could very well dispense with altogether. G.o.dfrey was just thinking of taking up his anchor and going down towards the town when he saw him returning, accompanied by two natives carrying the sacks. He pulled up his anchor and paddled to sh.o.r.e. "Have you got everything, Luka?" he asked.

"Everything--powder, shot, and b.a.l.l.s; tea, salt; ten knives, and eight axes; beads, four goat-skins, looking-gla.s.ses, tobacco, and flour;" and one by one he handed the articles as he named them into the boat.

"How much flour is there, Luka?"

"Two hundred pounds. I have got more trinkets than we said. They were very cheap. They look like gold and silver, and only cost ten kopecks apiece. I have also brought two bottles of vodka."

"That is bad, Luka."

"The two only cost a rouble," Luka said calmly; "they may be very useful to us; and I bought more tea and tobacco than we said."

The men who had carried the flour had received a few kopecks for their trouble, and had gone off as soon as they had laid down their burdens.

Directly the things were handed into the boat, Luka stepped in and they pushed off into the stream.

"I have bought plenty of arrow-heads, and two steel spear heads and shafts."

"I wondered what those short poles were."

"They are of tough wood and the right length, ten feet long. They are good for seal-hunting and for bears."

"Well, I think you have done capitally, Luka. You have made the money go a long way. I suppose you have spent the hundred roubles you took with you?"

"I have four left. I think I have done very well. We have everything we shall want through the winter."

"Well, we are fairly off for the north now," G.o.dfrey said, in high spirits that everything was settled, and that for eight months at least there would not be the slightest risk of meeting with a Russian policeman or soldier. "Hurrah for the north, Luka, and for shooting and adventures!"

Luka smiled. It was rarely he laughed, but he was always ready to smile when G.o.dfrey addressed him.

"The air feels brisk and cold to-day. We shall soon have winter upon us."

"Yes; look there!" Luka said, pointing into the air ahead of them.

"What is it? It looks like a long black streak."

"Geese," Luka said. "It is a flight of wild geese from the north."

As it approached G.o.dfrey saw that the Tartar was right. A solitary bird led the way, two followed him closely, then came rank after rank widening out till it was a broad band of fully fifty abreast. Line after line they followed in almost military array, and extending in length fully a quarter of a mile.

"Why, there must be thirty or forty thousand of them there," he exclaimed in amazement.

"You will see bigger flocks than that," Luka said. "Why, all the river, from Minusinsk down to Turukhansk, more than 2000 miles, is well-nigh covered with birds. We shall have no lack of meat presently."

During the day many flights similar to those first seen pa.s.sed overhead, some larger, some containing only a score or two birds. The next day the numbers were still larger, whole battalions coming along almost incessantly. These were by no means confined to geese. There were gulls and swans, flocks of small birds of many kinds, flights of wild ducks--the latter, for the most part, flying much lower than the geese, which kept far overhead.

"We had better land to-night," Luka said. "They fly close after dark, and the flocks will settle on the banks. We will shoot them as they come overhead. You may not see them well, but they are so thick that you can hardly miss them."

Accordingly, when evening came on they landed, fastened the boat, took a couple of sheep-skins each to throw over their shoulders (for even in these two days the cold had sensibly increased), and lay down to await the coming of the birds. All day long the air had been full of their cries, but it had grown quieter now, though occasionally they heard a sharp cry of the leader of a flock, followed by a responsive note from the birds following him. From time to time G.o.dfrey could hear the whirring sound of a mult.i.tude of wings as the flocks pa.s.sed overhead.

These became louder as the time went on, and he knew that they were flying lower. He had loaded his gun with heavy shot, and once or twice was disposed to fire, but Luka each time stopped him. "They are much too high yet. They will come close down presently." The stars were s.h.i.+ning brightly, and G.o.dfrey could make out the outlines of the geese as they pa.s.sed overhead. Presently there was a sharp call a few hundred yards higher up the bank.

"This lot are coming low," Luka whispered. "They are probably going to settle to feed. Get ready now."

G.o.dfrey lay with his gun pointed upwards; a minute later he heard the rustling of wings, which rose to a sound like a mighty wind, and then some forty yards overhead a dark cloud of birds swept along across the sky. G.o.dfrey fired one barrel, waited a moment and then fired again.

With a loud cry of surprise and alarm the flock divided in two, and almost instantly there were several heavy thuds on the ground close by.

"Hurrah! we have got some of them," G.o.dfrey said, and leaping up they ran to collect the fallen birds. There were five of them. "That is grand," he exclaimed in delight.

"Will you shoot some more?" Luka asked.

"No, we have as many as we can eat, Luka, for the next three days at least. It would be a waste of powder and shot to kill more, and worse still, it would be a waste of life. It is right to kill what we require as food, but to my mind there is nothing more wicked than taking life merely for amus.e.m.e.nt. I consider that we should well deserve any misfortune that might happen to us if we were to kill any one of G.o.d's creatures wantonly. One of our best poets has written:

"'He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear G.o.d who loveth us, He made and loveth all.'

"It makes me furious sometimes, Luka, when I read books of what is called sport, and find men boasting of killing numerous creatures merely for the pleasure of killing them. I feel that nothing would give me greater pleasure than to flog such brutes."

Luka did not much understand this outburst of indignation, but as usual he grunted an a.s.sent, and carrying the birds they returned to the boat.

"It is freezing to-night," the Tartar said as they stepped in. "I will lay the geese in the bow beyond the cover. They will be frozen by the morning."

G.o.dfrey was glad of the wrapping of warm furs that night, and even when he shook them off and looked out at sunrise, it was still so chilly that, after he had leaned over the side of the boat as usual, and sluiced his head with water, he was glad to take a paddle and work hard for a bit to keep himself warm.

"Get the fire alight, Luka, and the kettle on," he said, "and cut up one of those geese. How are you going to get the feathers off? I suppose you will have to pluck them and singe them."

"It would take much too long that. We can spare the feathers this time."

So saying, with his knife he made a slight incision down the breast-bone, and then proceeded to tear off the skin, bit by bit, feathers and all.

"That is a quick way," G.o.dfrey said, "though it doesn't improve the bird's appearance; but that is a trifle. Never mind the bread, we shall have to do without that before long, and I feel as hungry as a hunter."

In a very few minutes the fire was blazing, and portions of the goose frizzling over it, and in twenty minutes the meal was ready. G.o.dfrey thought he had never eaten anything nicer; and the meat being much less rich than that of tame geese, he did very well without bread. For the next three days they made no pause, floating down night and day, the stream varying in speed from five to ten miles an hour. At points where the stream was most rapid, they paddled in towards the bank to avoid the waves raised by the river in its course. The light boat always floated easily over these, but she needed to be kept with her head to them; and G.o.dfrey was afraid that a moment's carelessness might bring her broadside on to them, and therefore preferred to glide along at a somewhat slower rate near the sh.o.r.e.

The river was now a mile and a half wide. To the left the country was flat, but on the right they could see hills rising far above each other.

One or two small trading stations were seen on the right bank, but upon the left they pa.s.sed only a few cl.u.s.ters of Ostjak yourts. On the right great pine forests came down in places to within a short distance of the river, but these were rarely seen on the left. On the fifth day after leaving Yeneseisk they saw a small trading station on the right bank.

This G.o.dfrey, who had got the geography of the river by heart, judged to be Peslovska, because it was one of the few trading stations which was not situated at a point where a tributary stream ran into the Yenesei.

"We are far enough down now, Luka," he said. "We are not more than two hundred miles from Turukhansk. We will land at the next Ostjak huts we come to, and see if they are disposed to be friendly with us."

"They will be friendly," Luka said confidently. "Why not? They are peaceable people, and they know that did they touch strangers they would be punished. There are Russian soldiers at Turukhansk. The Ostjaks are very poor. You have things to give them, and you want nothing of them."

Twenty miles further they saw a group of seven huts on the left bank ahead of them, and paddling in landed close to them. Three or four canoes, much smaller than their own lay there, and as they climbed the lofty bank some of the Ostjaks came out from their huts.

"What do you want?" one of them asked abruptly.

"I am travelling with this gentleman, who has come from a far distant country to hunt and to shoot game here in winter. We would like to live beside your village and to hunt with you. You see he has a gun. He has many things as presents, and it will be well for the village where he settles. Here is some tobacco for all," and Luka handed a small roll of tobacco to each of the men. "We have also some presents for the women,"

and he produced two or three looking-gla.s.ses, and some rows of large blue and red beads. The women, who were listening in the huts, at once came out.

"It is good," an old man, who seemed to be the leader of the Ostjaks, said. "Why should not the stranger live here with us and hunt with us if he chooses? He will be welcome. Let us help the strangers."

The whole of the Ostjaks at once set to work. G.o.dfrey chose a piece of level ground twenty or thirty yards lower down than the huts. He and Luka, aided by some of the men, carried the various articles out of the boat. While they were doing this, the women stuck some poles in the ground round the circle G.o.dfrey had traced, and lashed them together in the middle with some strips of hide. The three large skins were placed against this on the northern side. Then the women paused.