oasted along the peninsula
until they arrived at Cape Kekour, its western point. They had now been
paddling nearly twelve hours, for Godfrey was too impatient to be
content with the sail only. Just before they arrived at the cape, Luka,
seeing a good place for landing, suggested a halt.

"No, no," Godfrey said, "we will not risk another landing. We have been
marvellously fortunate up to now, and it would be folly to run even the
slightest risk when we are so near the end of our journey. We will keep
on. There are only thirty or forty more miles to go, and then we shall
enter the Voranger Fiord. Then we shall be in Norway. Think of that,
Luka! We can snap our fingers at the Russians, and tell everyone we meet
that we have escaped from their prisons."

"Who shall we meet?" Luka asked.

"Ah, that is more than I can tell you. The sooner we meet some one the
better. Norway is not like this country we have been passing along; it
is all covered with great mountains and forests. I don't know anything
about the coast, but I fancy it is tremendously rocky, and we should
have a poor chance there if caught in another storm from the north.
There are Laplanders, who are people just like the Samoyedes, and who
have got reindeer; if we find any of them, as I hope we shall, we ought
to be all right. We have got a hundred silver roubles, and if you show a
man money and make signs you want to go somewhere, and don't much care
where, he is pretty safe to take you. Now you take a sleep, Luka. I will
steer. There is no occasion to paddle, the wind is taking us along
nearly three miles an hour, and time is no particular object to us now.
You get three hours, then I will take three, and then we will set to
with the paddles again."

Eight hours later they could make out high land on the starboard bow,
and knew that they were approaching the entrance to the fiord. They had
not taken to their paddles again, for the wind had freshened, and they
were going fast through the water. Luka cooked a meal, and as it was
growing dark the land closed in on both sides to a distance of about
eight miles.

An hour later they saw lights on their right hand. "Hurrah!" Godfrey
exclaimed, "there is a village there. We won't land to-night. We might
find it difficult to get a place to sleep in. One night longer on board
won't do us any harm. Thank God we are fairly out of Russia at last, and
shall land as free men in the morning."

They drew in towards the sh