The wind was light and from the north, and both took
their paddles. Their four days' rest had done them good, and the canoe,
under the influence of sail and oar, went fast through the water.

"Twenty-four hours ought to take us across," Godfrey said. "The gulf
looks from eighty to ninety miles across at the point where the river
runs into it. We must head rather to the south, for there is sure to be
a current out in the middle, as the Obi is a big river."

It was, however, thirty hours before they reached the opposite
shore--Godfrey accounting for the difference on the supposition that the
stream must have been a good deal stronger than they expected, and must
have drifted them down a long way. They found, indeed, that even inshore
they were passing the land at a rate of nearly two miles an hour.

"That is all the better, Luka, for with this north wind our sail will be
no good to us. We may as well get it down at once and stow it. The
shores are muddy, I see; so we shall not hurt the canoe if we should
drift up against it. That is a comfort, for we can both go to sleep. I
am sure, after thirty hours' paddling with only two or three long
easies, we deserve a rest. First of all we must have a meal. One does
not know whether to call it dinner or supper when there is no night and
we sleep just when we are tired."

They had caught eight or ten fish as they came across, passing through a
great shoal of herrings. In half an hour the kettle was boiling over the
fire, the fish were hissing and crackling in the frying-pan over it, and
a strip of deer's flesh, with the ramrod run through it, was frizzling.
It was pronounced excellent. There was a slight aromatic bitterness that
gave a zest and flavour to it, and the flesh inside was by no means so
tough as Godfrey had expected to find it. When all three of the voyagers
had satisfied their hunger, the brands were as usual extinguished, the
embers thrown overboard; then returning to the canoe, they lay down,
and were in a very few minutes fast asleep. They slept for six hours,
and when they woke the land was no longer in sight.

"It is lucky there is no fog," Godfrey said, "and that we have the sun
to act as a compass. We can't be many miles out. We won't make straight
for shore, Luka; we will head about north-west, so as to edge in
gradually. There must be a good deal of current here, and it will be
helping us along."

In an hour the low line of coast was visible, and they the