A BREAKDOWN 133 



hurriedly secured the services of a boy called Lambert, 

 who spoke a few words of English and whose father, an 

 American by birth, had settled down at Petropavlovsk 

 and had died there. He was an active young- fellow, 

 and was delighted to share our hardships. Having 

 embarked on the Storoj, where the accommodation 

 was in no way too spacious — Littledale and Tallent 

 slept in the dining-room — we expected to find 

 ourselves next morning on the move, but it turned 

 out that the fog was so thick that it was out of the 

 question starting before eight a.m., when the mist 

 lifted at last. We had hardly steamed live miles out 

 of the harbour when our ship stopped owing to some- 

 thing- havino- oone wrono" with one of the encrines; for 

 be it known it was a twin-screw steamer. The captain, 

 engineer, and passengers proceeded to lend a helping- 

 hand and endeavour to detect the reason of this delay. 

 To the o-eneral disL^ust it was not till the afternoon 

 that a broken nut was found, after every separate piece 

 had been dismounted and carefully inspected. Our 

 chances of reaching Khodutka that day accordingly 

 vanished. Another most unconifortable night in our 

 small, dirty cabin — more of a cu|)board than a cabin — 

 made us pine for our tents again. At supper Captain 

 Heck, who was no ordinary person, related many 

 adventures that had befallen him durino- his thirtv 



