I could not believe it was true; the child was apparently full of life, he had opened his eyes again and was looking at us. I shouted for a doctor but received no answer. But in consideration of a five rouble note, one of the hands consented to go and look in the village for a sort of veterinary surgeon who did duty for a doctor both for men and horses.

  All this time Louise and I were undressing the poor fellow, we warmed a sheep skin at the fire and wrapped him up in it; while the child murmured a few words of thanks, and ceased to move appearing paralysed in all his limbs. Meanwhile the carriers returned to their horses and continued their preparations. I went up to George and begged him to delay the start for a few moments until the doctor had come and he answered me: “Don’t you disturb yourself, we shall not start for another quarter of an hour and in a quarter of an hour he will be dead.” I returned to the poor boy whom I had left in care of Louise; he had made a slight movement as if he would get nearer still to the fire and this gave us a little hope. Just then the doctor came in and Ivan explained to him why he had been sent for.

  The doctor shaking his head, came near the fire and pulled aside the sheep skin; the child was dead.

  Louise asked for the parents of the unfortunate boy, to give them a hundred roubles; the landlord replied that there were none but that he was an orphan whom he had reared out of charity.

  CHAPTER XXIV

  THE omen was not a lucky one; but it was too late to defer the start now; it was George himself who urged it; the vehicles were drawn up in file in front of the inn door; George was at the head of the caravan, while in the middle was our telega drawn troika fashion, that is by three horses harnessed abreast; we got in, Ivan sat down beside the post boy on a bench which did duty for a box seat which had disappeared during the alterations to our equipage, and with a prolonged whistle we got under way. We had already proceeded a dozen versts from the village when daylight appeared; in front of us, apparently within reach of our hands, were the Ural Mountains which we were about to attack; but before going any farther, George ascended a height, exactly as the captain of a ship would have done, and perceived by the bearings of the trees that we were on the right track. Thus did we continue taking precautions not to lose it, and arrived in less than an hour at the Western slope. Here we perceived that the ascent was too steep and the snow was not yet sufficiently consolidated to permit each wagon being dragged up by the eight horses that were attached to it. George decided that only two wagons could ascend at the same time and that all the horses in the caravan should be harnessed to these two vehicles; then when the two vehicles had reached the top, all the horses were to go back and bring up the others until the whole ten which comprised our caravan had been dragged up. Two horses were set aside to be harnessed unicorn fashion to our sleigh. It was easy to see that our fellow travellers looked upon us as brothers, and yet all was settled without our having recourse once to the Emperor’s order.

  But here the order of the procession was changed, as our vehicle was the lightest we left the centre and proceeded to the head; two men walked in front armed with long pikes to prod the ground. George held our leader by the bridle while two men followed us, to cut with their axes the snow behind the sleigh, in order to leave tracks at the places where the wheels had passed, which might be followed by a second vehicle and afterwards by a third; I found a place between the sleigh and the precipice, delighted to get an opportunity of walking and thus we commenced the ascent followed by two wagons.

  After an hour and a half’s steady climb, we reached a kind of plateau surmounted by a few trees. The place seemed suitable for a halt. There were still eight wagons which required to be pulled up two at a time like the others; it would take eight hours without counting the time, taken by the horses in going down the hill; so we could scarcely hope to finish before nightfall.

  All the carters except two left at the bottom to guard the baggage, had climbed up with us to examine the ground and all agreed that we were on the right road. Since there was nothing to do but follow the track we had made, they went down again with the horses except four who remained with George, Ivan and me to build a shelter.

  Louise rested in the sleigh, wrapped up in her furs and having nothing to fear from the cold; we let her remain there comfortably until it was time to get out and set to work to fell with our big axes the trees which surrounded us, but leaving four to serve as corner posts for our house. Rather with the idea of warming ourselves than providing a shelter, we began to build a hut and after an hour’s work, thanks to the marvellous skill of our amateur carpenters, we had constructed a log cabin. We then scooped away the snow inside until we reached the solid earth, and piling the snow outside the building made it air-tight; then with the waste branches we lighted a large fire, allowing the smoke to escape, as usual, through a hole made in the roof. The hut was finished, Louise left the sleigh and sat in front of the hearth; the fowl already plucked and suspended by a siring was turning backwards and forwards when the second convoy arrived.

  At five o’clock in the evening all the wagons were drawn up on the plateau and the horses unharnessed were eating their maize straw, while the men had prepared in a large pot a kind of polenta and this together with their raw bacon with which they rubbed their bread and a bottle of brandy we gave them constituted their supper.

  When the meal was over we made ourselves as comfortable as we could; the carters wanted to leave the hut to us and sleep in the open air, but we insisted that they should share the shelter which they had themselves built, only it was thought expedient that one of them should act as sentinel, armed with my carbine as a protection against wolves and bears, and at intervals of an hour the sentinel was to be relieved; it was in vain that Ivan and I entreated that we might take our share of the watch.

  As may be supposed, our position was not at all a bad one; for thanks to the furs with which the Countess Vaninkov had supplied us so plentifully, we went to sleep without feeling the cold much. We were all sound asleep when we were suddenly awakened by a gun shot.

  I leapt to my feet, and seizing a pistol in each hand rushed with Ivan to the door; the carters contented themselves with raising their heads and asking what was the matter, there were even two or three who did not wake up at all.

  It was George who had just fired at a bear; attracted by curiosity the brute had approached within twenty paces of the hut and once there, doubtless the better to see what was going on inside, he reared himself on his hind quarters; then George seizing the opportunity let fly at him; he was calmly reloading his weapon, for fear of a surprise, when I got to him. I asked him if he thought he had hit the animal and he said he was sure of it.

  As soon as the other carters heard the word bear mentioned, their apathy gave way to a desire to go in search of the animal; and as the bear had certainly been wounded it would be an easy matter to trace it by the big tracks of blood left on the snow. George alone had any claim to it, so his son a young man of about twenty five or twenty-six called David, asked permission to follow up the tracks, and getting leave, he went off in the direction of the blood; I called him back to offer him my carbine, but he made signs that he had his knife and axe and that these two weapons would be enough.

  I followed him with my eyes for a distance of about fifty paces and saw him go down into a ravine, plunging into the darkness, and going down on all fours so as not to lose sight of the blood stained footprints. The carriers returned into the hut and George continued his spell of duty which was not yet over, and as I had waked up so effectively that I should not be able to get to sleep again for some time, I remained with him. After a few seconds, I thought I heard in the direction in which George’s son had disappeared, a dull growling; the father evidently heard it too, for without saying a word he seized me by the arm and squeezed it tight. After a few moments we heard another growl and I felt the iron fingers of George digging into my flesh, then there was silence for nearly five minutes which seemed I suppose five centuries to the father; at length at the end of five minutes a human cry was heard. George breathed loudly, let go my arm and turning towards me, said: — ” We shall have a better dinner tomorrow than to-day, the bear is dead.”

  “Oh! good heavens! George,” murmured a soft voice behind us, “how can you allow your son to follow such an animal alone, and almost without weapons.”

  “I beg your pardon, Madam “said George smiling with pride, “we understand bears; I have myself accounted for more than fifty in my life and in these encounters I have never received more than a few scratches which are scarcely worth mentioning. Why should an accident happen to my son rather than to me?”

  “Nevertheless,” I said, “you were not quite so cool just now as you appear at the present moment, as witness my arm which I thought you were going to break.”

  “Ah!” said George, “I knew from the peculiar growl that the bear gave that he and my son were having a hand to hand struggle. It is a weakness, your Excellency, I admit, but what would you have, a father is always a father.”

  At this moment Georges reappeared at the same spot where I had last lost sight of him, retracing his steps exactly as he set out, by following the track of blood. George, as if he wished to prove that all traces of his weakness had passed away did not move a step to greet David, and I advanced alone to meet the young man.

  He was carrying the four paws of the animal, that is, the portion which is usually considered the greatest delicacy, and these paws were intended for us. The carcase he was not able to lift; the bear was enormous and weighed at least five hundred weight.

  At this news every jack man among the sleepers sprang up and offered to go in search of the rest of the animal. Meanwhile David had thrown aside his sheep skin and laid bare his shoulder; he had received a scratch from the claws of his terrible antagonist which had gone in so deeply as to nearly expose the bone. However he had lost little blood as it had almost immediately congealed. Louise wished to bathe the wound with warm water and bind it up with her handkerchief, but David shook his head and said it was already dry; then he put on his shepherd’s skin once more, after simply rubbing the wound with a little bacon. His father then ordered him not to leave the hut and the six carters appointed by George to go and search for the bear’s quarters, set out alone.

  George’s spell of duty being at an end, he came and sat down near his son and another man took his place. I then heard the young man giving a detailed account of the encounter to his father. As he told his tale the father’s eyes glared like coals. When he had finished, Louise offered the wounded man some of our furs in which to wrap himself but he refused them and placing his head on the old man’s shoulder went to sleep.

  We were so tired that we soon followed his example and woke up again at five o’clock in the morning, without any further incident to disturb our sleep.

  Our guides had already harnessed half the wagons and our sleigh. As the ascent was now not so abrupt, they hoped this time to make but two journeys. George, as before, held our leader’s bridle and headed the procession; his son and another man walked in front with their long pikes to probe the ground. About midday we reached the summit, not of the mountain, but of the pass. It was time to call a halt if we wanted the rest of the vehicles to come up with us before night. We looked all round us to see if we could find any clumps of trees like those we made use of the evening before; but as far as the eye could see the mountain was bare; it was therefore arranged that the second convoy should bring up a load of wood, not only for preparing supper, but to keep a fire going all night.

  We were much annoyed at ourselves for not having thought of this before, and we were thinking of building as well as we could, a kind of tent, by driving four poles into the ground and stretching over them one of the coverings of the wagons, when we saw George’s son riding up with two horses, laden with wood. The good fellows had thought of us and foreseeing that without a fire the time would pass heavily, they had sent up some fuel. When the tent was finished, we scraped out the snow as usual, and David dug a square shaped hole in the earth about a foot deep, and then set fire to a faggot over the hole. When the faggot was burnt up he half filled the hole with the hot ashes, placed upon them two of the paws of the bear he had killed in the night, covered them up with glowing charcoal, just as he might have dealt with potatoes or chestnuts, then he placed on this improvised oven another faggot and in two hours’ time the whole thing was a mass of cinders and embers.

  While our cook was thus preparing the supper he would constantly go to the door of the tent to take stock of the weather; for in truth clouds covered the sky and there was a death-like silence; evidently some change was portended for the night, while any change situated as we were would only be to our disadvantage. So when the second convoy arrived, the wagoners gathered together in consultation peering into the sky and holding up their fingers to the wind, to see if its direction was settled; the result was doubtless not very satisfactory, for they came and sat down gloomily by the fire. As I did not wish to appear to share their apprehensions in the presence of Louise, I told Ivan to find out what they were afraid of; he came back a moment later to say that they were expecting a snowstorm and in that case the wind and the avalanches might cause them to lose their way to-morrow, and as the road for the whole of the descent ran by the edge of precipices, the least deviation might bring about a tragedy. This was the very danger I had anticipated and I was quite prepared for the news.

  However anxious my fellow travellers may have been they did not neglect the claims of hunger; for the moment they had seated themselves round the fire they set about cutting steaks from the bear which they laid on the charcoal. The most delicious morsels were set aside for us, namely the paws baked on a slow fire; so when our self-appointed cook judged that they were ready he carefully removed the ashes which covered them, and drew them out one by one from the embers.

  I must confess that on this occasion their appearance was not at all flattering; the paws had grown to an enormous size, and looked like a shapeless mass, far from attractive. After placing them smoking hot on a fir log which his companions had cut the day before, and had brought with them to serve as a table, our cook began to remove the crust in which they were buried, with his knife. As he proceeded with this operation the most appetising odour arose and I began to change my mind; besides, having eaten nothing since the morning but a little bread, and raw bacon, I was terribly hungry. Louise regarded all the preparations with manifest repugnance and declared positively that she would eat nothing but bread.

  Unfortunately when the meal was ready the sight of it very nearly took away the appetite which the smell had excited; for as a matter of fact when the paws of a bear are stripped of their skin they almost exactly resemble the hands of a giant. To the great astonishment of the spectators I remained for a minute in doubt, attracted by the odour, but repelled by the appearance, and yet anxious to see someone taste this much vaunted dainty, I turned to Ivan who was gazing at the joint with the eyes of a gourmand, and made a sign to him to sample it; he did not want telling twice, but borrowed his neighbour’s knife and fork and with the most evident delight set to work on the two paws; as there was no reason to doubt his disinterested assurance and his evident satisfaction, I followed his example and at the first mouthful I am bound to confess that his taste was justified.

  Neither our example nor our entreaties had the slightest influence upon Louise, who was content to eat a little bread and fried bacon, and not caring to drink the brandy, she quenched her thirst with melted snow.

  In the meantime night had fallen, and the darkness increasing more and more, clearly showed us that the weather was changing; the horses huddled together with a kind of instinctive uneasiness, and from time to time great gusts of wind passed over us, which would have carried away our tent, if our far-sighted companions had not taken the precaution to plant it against a rock; we nevertheless made, preparations for sleeping if such a thing were possible. As the tent did not offer sufficient protection for a woman, Louise got into the sleigh and I covered the opening with the skin of the bear which had been shot the night before. I then re-entered the tent which our comrades had deserted, pretending that they would be more comfortable under their wagons. Indeed the tent was too small to hold all of us, though we begged that at any rate half the company should share it with us; but they absolutely refused, and the only one who would consent to enter the tent with me was George’s son, who was still feeling the effects of the wound he received the day before. Meanwhile the others as I have already stated, crept in underneath their wagons, with the exception of George, who despised such sybaritism, and went to sleep in the open air, wrapping himself in a sheep skin and resting his head upon a rock; one of the wagoners kept watch at the tent door as on the previous night.

  As I was returning from my tour of inspection, I caught sight of a huge pile of branches, which I had not noticed before. They were heaped up in the middle of the road and were just being lighted. This second fire which could warm no one seemed to me rather needless and I asked why it had been prepared. David told me it was to scare away the wolves who would be attracted by the smell of roast meat and would be certain to come and prowl round us. This reason seemed to me a sound one, and the precaution well conceived; the sentry had received orders to attend to both the fire in our tent and the fire on the road.

  We wrapped ourselves in our cloaks and awaited, if not with tranquillity, at any rate with resignation, for the two enemies which threatened us, snow and wolves. Our suspense was not long, for before half an hour had passed, I saw the former falling and heard in the distance the howling of the latter. Yet I was so fatigued that when I noticed, after the lapse of about twenty minutes, that the howls, which I confess frightened me much more than the snow, though they were really less dangerous, did not come any more, I fell sound asleep.

 

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