purchases to be
made.

"I shall drop down a little nearer the town, Luka, when I think it is
about time for you to be coming back, so you won't have so far to carry
the things. Don't be more than three hours whether you have got anything
or not, or I shall begin to feel anxious about you."

Luka nodded, and went off. Godfrey paddled the boat out a short
distance, let down the stone, and began to fish. He was under no real
uneasiness as to the young Tartar, there was nothing about him to
distinguish him from other natives, and as these would be about this
time arriving in considerable numbers at Yeneseisk to sell the skins of
the animals they had taken in the chase during the summer, and to lay
in stores for the winter, it was unlikely in the extreme that anyone
would even question him. Such indeed was the case. There were numbers of
natives in the stores of the Russian traders, and he made his purchases
without any question whatever being asked. He bought rather more
hatchets, knives, and trinkets than they had agreed upon, and two sacks
of flour, although he deemed the latter to be a luxury that they could
very well dispense with altogether. Godfrey was just thinking of taking
up his anchor and going down towards the town when he saw him returning,
accompanied by two natives carrying the sacks. He pulled up his anchor
and paddled to shore. "Have you got everything, Luka?" he asked.

"Everything--powder, shot, and balls; tea, salt; ten knives, and eight
axes; beads, four goat-skins, looking-glasses, tobacco, and flour;" and
one by one he handed the articles as he named them into the boat.

"How much flour is there, Luka?"

"Two hundred pounds. I have got more trinkets than we said. They were
very cheap. They look like gold and silver, and only cost ten kopecks
apiece. I have also brought two bottles of vodka."

"That is bad, Luka."

"The two only cost a rouble," Luka said calmly; "they may be very useful
to us; and I bought more tea and tobacco than we said."

The men who had carried the flour had received a few kopecks for their
trouble, and had gone off as soon as they had laid down their burdens.
Directly the things were handed into the boat, Luka stepped in and they
pushed off into the stream.

"I have bought plenty of arrow-heads, and two steel spear heads and
shafts."

"I wondered what those short poles were."

"They are of tough wood and the right length, ten feet long. They are
good for seal-hunti