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FROZEN FAST. 77
be capsized. The water was foaming under the poplar
immediately in front of us. Another moment and we should
be shipwrecked, and all our belongings lost in the ghastly-
whirlpool. The men were working with frenzied energy ;
some of the smarter canoemen clambered on board our
ferry-boat,, leaving their own frail vessels to their fate,
and planted themselves bare-legged in the prow beside
Islam and myself, ready to seize hold of the poplar and
try, at any rate, to break the force of the collision. But
once more fortune was with us. My Lailik boatmen
pulled like galley-slaves and, just in the very last moment,
succeeded in forcing the ferry-boat into an eddy under
the opposite bank. There we spun half-round the circle,
and should, of course, have once more drifted down upon
the poplar, had not Alim jumped into the ice-cold water
with a line and towed us past the point of danger.
Whilst we v/ere being whirled round in the eddy, Kasim
and Kader went spinning past with the provision boat
and my little sailing-skiff hung on behind her. Fortunately
they had sufficient presence of mind to give the latter
a sharp push, so that she was caught in the eddy, and
we managed to get hold of her. But their own craft swept
straight upon the poplar, and came within an ace of being
upset, only Kasim contrived to hold on to the tree-trunk.
Had this happened on a dark night we should never have
seen the poplar, and a serious catastrophe might have
resulted. My Lailik boatmen were now beginning to feel
dispirited. They thought this winding, curling river
would never come to an end, but we should go on drifting,
drifting, day after day, farther and farther towards the
east. Twelve hundred miles away from home ! Were we
never going to stop ? Would they never return to their
families in Lailik ? They grew sick at heart as they
thought of the constantly growing distance behind them.
We had not gone very far when we heard anxious cries
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