THE LAMP OF ST. NICHOLAS 363 



But they tried all ways. They tackled Hyland when 

 he was alone on the deck, as he told me. They told him 

 he could set it if he liked. Of course Hyland was as 

 staunch as a rock — he only laughed at them and said he 

 knew nothing of it. 



I nearly lost it once. I was feeling for something in 

 my long tin case, the lid open, when something made me 

 turn suddenly, and there, close over my shoulder, was 

 the face of Yakoff, the flicker of the lamp playing on his 

 features, and his eyes fixed on the contents of the box. 

 He couldn't have seen the bolvan (for it was in a little 

 skin bag), or he would have snatched it. At the same 

 moment some one went out through the door in the 

 darkness behind him. I knew it was Alexander. 



Now the following had happened earlier in the evening 

 before it grew dark. Hyland, who constantly had his gun 

 on the deck for chance shots, had brought it down to the 

 cabin, saying that Alexander had forbidden him to have 

 it there. This he considered very hard lines, as all the 

 Samoyeds had their loaded rifles. It was very unlike 

 Alexander, who took much interest in this deck-shooting 

 at seals. Well, my first impulse was to go and ex- 

 postulate, but after all, I reflected, he is master of his 

 own ship, so, though I thought it unfriendly, I let it go. 

 But I had been turning it over in my mind, and though 

 I could not see it clearly I understood intuitively that it 

 was somehow connected with the contra-bolvan spirit. 

 Now it flashed on me in a moment. They knew well 



