on for all he has done--two roubles, according to
bargain. Why should I buy thee _vodka_? Thou art better without _vodka_.
_Vodka_ will make thee drunk, and thou shalt be brought before the
_ispravnik_.'

"The dirty old rascal drew himself up.

"'I, even I, am _ispravnik_, and the horses were mine and the
_tarantass_ also.'

"'But thy son drove badly and upset us in the ditch.'

"'Then,' whispered the old scoundrel, coming close up with a look of
indescribable cunning on his face, 'give my son no _vodka_--give me all
the _vodka_.'

"Being glad on any terms to get clear of the precious couple, I gave
them both money for their _vodka_, and set off along the backwaters
towards the place described by Leof and Big Peter. I found them there
before me, and we lost no time in embarking. I found that they had the
boat well provendered and equipped. Indeed, the sight of their luxuries
tempted us all to excess; but I reminded them that we were still in a
country of game, and that we must save all our supplies till we were out
in the ocean. The Lena was swollen by the melting snows, and the boat
made slow progress, especially as we had to follow the least frequented
arms of the vast delta. We found, however, plenty of fish--specially
salmon, which were in great quantities wherever, in the blind alleys of
the backwaters, we put down the fish-spear. We were not the only animals
who rejoiced in the free and open life of the delta archipelago. Often
we saw bears swimming far ahead, but none of them came near our boat.

"One night when the others were sleeping I strayed away over the marshy
_tundra_, plunging through the hundred yards of black mud and moss where
the willow-grouse and the little stint were feeding. I came upon a nest
or two of the latter, and paused to suck some of the eggs, one of the
birds meanwhile coming quite close, putting its head quaintly to the
side as though to watch where its property was going, with a view to
future recovery. A little farther along I got on the real _tundra_, and
wandered on in the full light of a midnight sun, which coloured all the
flat surface of the marshy moorland a deep crimson, and laid deep
shadows of purple mist in the great hollow of the Lena river.

"In a little I sat down, and, putting up the collar of my coat--for the
air was beginning to bite sharply--I meditated on the chances of our
life. It did not seem that we had much more than one chance in a
hundred, yet the hundr