ore a mile or so above the lights, and
paddled cautiously on until close to the land. There they dropped their
anchor overboard, and, wearied out by their long row, were speedily
sound asleep.

It was broad daylight when they woke. Godfrey, when he sat up, gave a
loud cheer, which set Jack off barking wildly. "Look!" Godfrey shouted,
"it is a town, and there are two steamboats lying there. Thank God, our
troubles are all over. You had better get breakfast, Luka. It is of no
use going ashore till people are awake."

Breakfast over the anchor was at once pulled up, and in a quarter of an
hour they were alongside a quay. Their appearance was so similar to that
of the Lapps that they themselves would have attracted but little
notice, but the canoe was so different in its appearance to those used
by these people that several persons stood on the little quay watching
them as they came alongside. Their surprise at the boat was increased
when Godfrey came up on to the quay. No Laplander or Finn of his height
had ever been seen, and moreover, his face and hands were clean. They
addressed him in a language that he did not understand. He replied first
in English, then in Russian. Apparently they recognized the latter
language, and one of them motioned to Godfrey to follow him.

"You wait here till I come back, Luka. I daresay the people are honest
enough, but I don't want any of our furs or things stolen now that we
have got to the end of our journey."

He then followed his conductor to a large house in the principal street,
where he went in to a sort of office and spoke to a man sitting there.
Then he went out, and in a minute returned with a gentleman.

"Do you speak English, sir?" Godfrey said.

"I speak it a little," the gentleman replied in surprise at hearing the
language from one who looked like a Laplander.

"Do you speak Russian better?" Godfrey next asked.

"Yes," he replied in that language. "I know Russian well. And who are
you?"

"I am an Englishman. I was resident in St. Petersburg when I was seized
and condemned to exile in Siberia as a Nihilist, although I was
perfectly innocent of the charge. I was taken to the mines of Kara in
the east of Siberia, but made my escape, descended the Yenesei, and have
coasted from there in a canoe."

The man looked at him incredulously.

"I am not surprised that you doubt my story," Godfrey said. "If you will
come down with me to the wharf you will see the canoe in whic