bottom of the crater-like pit Alexis
could see the body of the animal, but nothing of a man--neither arms,
legs, nor body. Could he be under the bear, concealed by the shaggy
hair? Was he hidden under the black water that filled the bottom of the
ravine?--or, horrible thought! was he dead, and had his body been
carried off by the current that rushed rapidly under the snow?

This was not improbable, for Alexis could see that there was a sort of
arched tunnel between the snow and the water, quite large enough to have
admitted the body of a man!

In agony he cried out, calling Pouchskin by name. He was repeating his
despairing invocation, when all at once a loud laugh echoed in his ears,
uttered close behind him. In the laughter he recognised the voice of
Ivan.

Alexis suddenly leaped to his feet, wondering what on earth could be the
cause of this ill-timed merriment. He turned towards Ivan with the
intention of chiding him; but at that moment an object fell under his
eye, that hindered him from carrying his intention into effect. On the
contrary, the sight he saw caused him such joy, that he could not
restrain himself from joining Ivan in his laughter. No wonder. The
sight was odd enough to have drawn a smile from a dying man. A
spectacle more ludicrous could scarce have been conceived.

A little further down the ravine, and about ten paces from where the
boys were standing, an object was seen protruding above the snow. It
was about ten inches in vertical diameter, something less horizontally,
and of a roundish or oval shape. In colour it was almost white as the
snow itself: for, indeed, it was sprinkled over with this material out
of the bosom of which it had just emerged. A stranger coming upon the
ground might have been sorely puzzled to make out what it was; but not
so Ivan, who, on first beholding it, as it popped upward through the
frozen crust, recognised it as the head of Pouchskin. Alexis also made
it out at the first glance; and it was the comic twinkle of Pouchskin's
eyes--denoting that no great damage had happened to him--that led Alexis
to join his brother in the laughter.

Their merriment, however, was of short continuance--only an involuntary
burst, for a moment's reflection told them that Pouchskin, although they
saw him alive, might nevertheless have sustained some serious injury;
and both at the thought hastened up towards the head.

On getting close to it, however, Ivan was unable to