convinced
that he was perfect. He took his sleeping-bag but no tent. He calculated
that he should be away five days, as it would take him two to drive to
Turukhansk, and a day there to make his purchases.

On the fifth evening he returned, with everything he had been ordered to
get, and a few other things that he thought would be useful. He had
obtained in all six hundred and fifty roubles as the result of their six
months' hunting, and of these had expended a hundred and seventy
roubles.

"We are well set up for money now, Luka," Godfrey said, as he added the
notes to those he before possessed. "I have still four hundred roubles
out of what I received from the Buriat, so we have now nearly nine
hundred, which will be enough to pay our way to England from any point
we may land at."

CHAPTER XIV.

THE BREAK-UP OF WINTER.

Spring was rapidly approaching now. Occasionally for a day or two
southerly winds set in and rain fell in torrents, then again the Arctic
currents prevailed, and everything was frozen as hard as before. Flocks
of geese passed over, flying north, but returned again when the cold set
in afresh. Small birds, too, in great numbers made their appearance,
crowding on patches of ground that the sun and rain had cleared of snow,
fluttering round the tents in flocks, picking up scraps of food that had
been thrown out, and keeping the dogs in a state of perpetual
excitement. The Ostjaks said that the break-up of the ice might come any
day, or it might be delayed for another month; it depended less upon the
weather here than on that higher up. It is not the sun or the rain that
breaks up the ice, but the rise of the river from the snow melting a
thousand miles higher up, and all over the country drained by the rivers
running into the Yenesei.

The women were now making a canoe under Godfrey's instructions. He had
often gone out in canoes on the Severn and on the sea when staying at
watering-places there. The craft that had done them such good service
before would not do for their present undertaking. They required a boat
which should be fairly fast, sea-worthy, and yet light, for it might be
necessary to carry it considerable distances. It was necessary that its
dimensions should exceed those of an English canoe, for it must carry a
considerable amount of food, although of course he meant to depend
chiefly on the fishing-lines and gun. It was made five-and-twenty feet
long, and three feet wide. Th