LO THE HOLY His 359 
deck to confer with his Samoyeds, and Alexander to his 
deck, to confer with his. 
Presently they would be up on their poops and at it 
again. 
Avexis. Where is the Englishman ? 
ALEXANDER. In the cabin. 
A.exis. I want to see him. 
ALEXANDER. He writes. 
Avexis. Hah! Always writing. (They looked on 
my writing so much as part of my uncanniness.) What 
else did he say? 
ALEXANDER. If you don’t go to-day you may not get 
off at all. 
Atexis. But this bolvan. Bulchikoff had a bolvan on 
board last year and the ship was lost. You know it. 
ALEXANDER. I know it. But he does not burn it, 
though I speak to him so much. Many times. 
Atexis. But my glass down goes. What does he say 
to that ? 
ALEXANDER. He says his glass down goes, but no 
matter, so slowly. He says it must go down or up if it 
is not still. 
Auexis. Does he say that? Well, that is spoken 
very well. 
And so on a hundred times over. 
You may imagine how I laughed at all this rubbish as ] 
lay in the cabin. But I did not feel happy, though I was 
quite determined to get them off if I could. I knew that 
