226 TALES OF THE TURF. 



our guards, and arranged details, till at last the favored 

 moment came. We started, not in the return direction, 

 but North; one of the Russians having friends further on 

 at one of the extreme outposts of Siberia, in Government 

 employ. 



"I will not attempt a description of our travels ; first 

 one of my companions died, then another, leaving but one 

 Russian and myself. We were aided by the natives, and 

 lived in their villages many months, travelling from one 

 place to another whenever we could obtain a guide, with 

 no set purpose, but a nameless phantom hope that some- 

 thing would occur in our favor. 



"We heard rumors that led us to believe that an Arc- 

 tic expedition was in the region. Then my last compan- 

 ion died, and I was left alone. Alone ! If this story is 

 ever found, I ask the reader if he knows what that word 

 'alone' means? 



"Somehow I noticed that the weather was getting 

 warmer, and I attributed it to the change of season. One 

 day I found a strange craft frozen in an ice floe. It was 

 of the yawl order, but very large, nearly a yacht in size. 

 By hard work I manage to get it loose from the ice, and 

 to store what few provisions I had in it, and set it afloat 

 was my next move. A rapid current carried me along 

 for, I cannot tell how long. I knew not in what direction, 

 but I fairly flew, and day by day it became warmer. 



"That's all I can tell ! whether I went to sleep, or sank 

 into an exhausted faint I cannot say. The next thing I 

 know I opened my eyes in a hospital with all the com- 

 forts imaginable. The people looked like the people in 

 the United States, dressed much like them, but had the 

 strangest language ever heard by man. I was, as might 

 be expected, looked upon as a curiosity, but I could see 



