"Gem Kamakatan" laughed and began to undress quickly. The next moment he emerged from his furs naked like a Greek statue, and Stefan watched with interest what would happen further. The Chukchee calmly hung his clothes in front of the fire, looked round, and, seeing Stefan's bed ready for the night, jumped in with great glee and disappeared under the quilt. All this was done so adroitly and unexpectedly that Stefan could not help bursting out laughing. The Chukchee drew his head from under the quilt again, and repeated in a friendly way: "Brother! Brother!" * * * * * "Well, has he been here?" asked Józef, coming in at his usual hour. "He is here even now." Stefan told his friend of the whole strange adventure. "Excellent! Excellent! Things are moving," the latter repeated, walking on tiptoe. "There's nothing excellent about it. I wish he were sleeping in your bed. He looks as if he had never washed or combed himself in his life. If he had at least cut his hair; but he wears it long, as if he wished to make himself objectionable like Kituwia." "That's nothing; these things are comparative trifles. Let me see him. The longer his hair is, the better; for in that case he is a warrior and a celebrity. Did he tell you his name?" "Yes; it's something queer like Gem Kamaka." They took the candle and went cautiously up to the bed where the native, with his copper face in an aureole of long matted hair, lay asleep on a white European pillow. Suddenly his eyelids quivered and his eyes opened wide. For a moment he looked in astonishment at the men standing beside him; then he jumped up and stretched out his bare arm with a despairing gesture. "Brother! Brother!" he whispered--"Anoai!" "Brother!" Stefan quickly repeated, touching him kindly. The native's face brightened with a childish laugh. He jumped lightly out of bed and ran for his clothes. "A fine model!" Józef exclaimed, slapping his back in a friendly way. The native turned round with a start. In order to reassure him, therefore, Józef went through the whole of his Chukchee vocabulary; and though "Gem-Kamaka" certainly did not understand much of this disconnected conversation, he grinned and repeated every word. His clothes being still wet, he sat down as he was at the table where the friends were drinking tea, and consented to eat something too, talking uninterruptedly in his reindeer dialect, and showing his large white teeth as he laughed heartily. Before he left he again laid his hand gratefully on Stefan's shoulder and said "Brother!" He also promised to bring his wife and parents to see him. "And bring Buza, Wopatka, and Kituwia." The Chukchee's face clouded a moment. "Very well--and Buza and Wopatka. We will drink vodka," he said in the local Russian-Chukchee jargon. "We will drink vodka." After he was gone Józef embraced Stefan excitedly. "This is splendid--first-rate! I already see myself on the ship."