an 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 th