Condemned as a Nihilist: A Story of Escape from SiberiaHenty, G. A. (George Alfred)
History
Condemned as a Nihilist: A Story of Escape from Siberia
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
Escapes -- Fiction; Russia -- History -- Alexander II, 1855-1881 -- Fiction; Siberia (Russia) -- Fiction
"Now, Luka, you must take my place and steer; move very carefully else
we shall capsize her. That is it. Now, if there is any change you lean
forward and touch me; I shall wake in a moment. If the sail should shift
over to the other side all you have got to do is to shift this sheet to
its fastening on that side. With this light wind jibing does not matter
at all, but if the wind freshens wake me at once."
For a quarter of an hour Godfrey watched to see that Luka steered
steadily, then he worked himself down in the cockpit and closed his
eyes. It did not seem to him that he had been asleep long when Luka
touched him.
"I would not have woke you," Luka said; "but the land seems going right
away from us."
Godfrey sat up. "So it is, Luka! I should not be surprised if that is
the extreme northern point. Of course it may be only a deep bay, but at
any rate we must see." He looked at his watch, "Why, I have been asleep
nearly seven hours. Now, Luka, you had better haul the boat alongside,
and see about cooking. We forgot to try those onions yesterday. Cut one
up small and put it in the pan with the meat. By the by, you had better
tie a piece of cord to those four bears' hams, and let them tow
overboard for two or three hours. The water must be quite salt now, and
when you take them out we will rub a little fresh salt into them. They
ought to keep well then."
As soon as Luka had got into the boat--Jack jumping in with him, as he
always made a point of superintending the cooking operations--Godfrey
took his place in the stern, jibed the sail, which had before been on
the port quarter, over to starboard, brought her head somewhat to the
north of west, and hauled in the sheet. Lying over till the water nearly
touched her gunwale, the light little craft would have gone speedily
along had it not been for the drag of the boat astern. This, however,
towed lightly, for she was loaded with but a very small proportion of
the weight she would carry. Godfrey judged, by the objects on the shore,
that they could not be going along less than three miles an hour. In six
hours the land trended away due south, and he knew that they had now
reached the first of the two deep bays they would have to pass before
reaching the northern extremity of the Cape. He kept on his course, and
an hour later, with the exception of the low coast nearly astern, no
land was to be seen. Luka, who was paddling steadily, looked round. He
had such implicit confidence in his companion that he was quite sure the
boat was keeping the right course, but he had a vague sense of
uneasiness at seeing nothing but sea around him.
"How do you know which way to go?" he asked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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