bbed his head out of the water; here a spectacled
eiderduck rode up and down on the tiny waves, and here a great mass of
tubular seaweed drifted by to remind them that they were really on the
bosom of the briny ocean.

Only one incident of the voyage caused them a feeling of vague unrest.
A fog had settled down over the sea. They were drifting and paddling
slowly forward, when the faint scream of a siren struck their ears. It
came nearer and nearer.

"A gasoline schooner," said Marian.

The natives began shouting to avert a possible collision.

Presently the schooner appeared, a dark bulk in the fog. It took
shape. Men were seen on the deck. It came in close by. The waves
from it reached the skin-boat.

They were passing with a salute, when a strange thing happened. Rover,
the old dog-leader, who had been riding in the bow standing well
forward, as if taking the place of a painted figurehead, suddenly began
to bark furiously. At the same time, Marian caught sight of a bearded
face framed in a porthole.

Involuntarily she shrank back out of sight. The next instant the
schooner had faded away into the fog. The dog ceased barking.

"What was it?" asked Lucile anxiously.

"Only a face."

"Who?"

"The man who wanted the blue envelope; Rover recognized him first."

"You don't suppose he knew, and is following?"

"How could he know?"

"But what is he going to Siberia for?"

"Perhaps to trade. They do that a great deal. Let's not talk of it."
Marian shivered.

The incident was soon forgotten. They were nearing the Siberian shore
which was to be their summer home. A million nesting birds came
skimming out over the sea, singing their merry song as if to greet
them. They would soon be living in a tent in the midst of a city of
tents. They would be studying a people whose lives are as little known
as were those of the natives in the heart of Africa before the days of
Livingstone.

As she thought of these things Marian's cheeks flushed with excitement.

"What new thrill will come to us here?" her lips whispered.

CHAPTER V

CAST ADRIFT

There was a shallow space beneath a tray of color-tubes in the very
bottom of Marian's paint-box. There, on leaving Cape Prince of Wales,
she had stowed the blue envelope addressed to Phi Beta Ki. She had not
done this without misgivings. Disturbing thoughts had come to her.
Was it the right thing to do? Was it safe? The latter question had
come