CHAPTER I 



IN SCHAROK CAMP 



So the Samoyeds were gone, and again we were 

 alone. 



There was no help for it, and the best we could do at 

 the moment was to prowl about and see exactly how we 

 lay. 



We made for the huts — they were about as cheerful 

 and promising as a group of tombs. 



Three were ' ombara ' — rickety shanties, designed as a 

 cover for barrels and skins. 



Three were 'isba,' or dwelling-huts: one was locked, 

 the other two we entered. The first was Uano's. 



The door — so low that you had to bend down as you 

 passed — opened into an antechamber, some ten feet 

 square, and blocked with barrels full of fat. The floor 

 was of earth, covered with a good deep layer of melted 

 seal-blubber. It had run from the tubs out through the 

 doorway and was smeared all about. A still smaller 

 door led into the living-room. On either side of this 

 was a wooden settle, a small table stood between the 

 two, a tiny window looked out across the sea, and on the 



wall hung a little Russian cross of wood. 



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