loss to cut her adrift, but it
can't be helped."

He unlashed the fastenings of the cover of the circular hole above him,
reached his hand forward and got hold of Luka's paddle, and passed it
with his own out through the hole. Then he sat up himself. Confident as
he felt in the canoe, he was almost frightened at the wild aspect of the
sea. The wind was literally howling, driving the rain before it with a
force that stung Godfrey's neck as it struck it. He got out a strip of
deer-skin lashing, of which there was a supply always close at hand
under the deck, lashed the paddles together, and then, leaning aft,
lashed them at the centre firmly to the tow-rope. Then with some
difficulty he got out his knife and cut the rope close to its fastening;
the paddles flew overboard, and the boat drifted rapidly astern, the
drag of the paddles being, as Godfrey observed with satisfaction,
sufficient to keep her head to wind. Then he wriggled himself down
underneath the apron again and lashed down the cover of the hole.

CHAPTER XVI

A SAMOYEDE ENCAMPMENT.

The action of the canoe was altogether changed as soon as it was
released from the strain of the boat behind. There was no more tugging
and jarring, but she rose and fell on the waves almost imperceptibly.

"Well, Jack, old fellow, what do you think of it?" Godfrey said to the
dog as it nestled up close to him. "Here we are now, out in a regular
storm. It is lucky we have plenty of sea-room, Jack. I reckon it is
seventy or eighty miles across to the other side of the gulf, and I
don't suppose she can drag those spars through the water much more than
a mile an hour. So we have plenty of time before us. We must both put
away as much time in sleep as we can. We have lost almost all our
provisions, old boy, and our water, which was of still more consequence.
It is very lucky I always made a rule of having the kettle filled and
put on board here after each meal and of keeping a dozen pounds of meat
here. I thought we might be obliged to cast the boat adrift suddenly.
Well, if we have luck, we may find it again. We shall both drift in the
same line, and there is no reason why she shouldn't live through it. The
stock of firewood has gone down, and she has not got above a couple of
hundred pounds' weight in her altogether. I am afraid she will take
enough salt water on board to spoil our supply of fresh, but I think we
are drifting pretty straight for the Kara River. I calcul