For we knew he had it in mind
to run before us, that he might get away while we were caught.
And they knocked our masts out of us till we dragged into the
wind like a wounded gull; but he went on over the edge of the sky
line--he and Unga.
'What could we? The fresh hides spoke for themselves. So they
took us to a Russian port, and after that to a lone country,
where they set us to work in the mines to dig salt. And some
died, and--and some did not die.' Naass swept the blanket from
his shoulders, disclosing the gnarled and twisted flesh, marked
with the unmistakable striations of the knout. Prince hastily
covered him, for it was not nice to look upon.
'We were there a weary time and sometimes men got away to the
south, but they always came back. So, when we who hailed from
Yeddo Bay rose in the night and took the guns from the guards, we
went to the north. And the land was very large, with plains,
soggy with water, and great forests. And the cold came, with much
snow on the ground, and no man knew the way. Weary months we
journeyed through the endless forest--I do not remember, now, for
there was little food and often we lay down to die. But at last
we came to the cold sea, and but three were left to look upon it.
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