They took the candle and went cautiously up to the bed where the native, with his copper face in an aureole of long matted hair, lay asleep on a white European pillow. Suddenly his eyelids quivered and his eyes opened wide. For a moment he looked in astonishment at the men standing beside him; then he jumped up and stretched out his bare arm with a despairing gesture.
"Brother! Brother!" he whispered—"Anoai!"
"Brother!" Stefan quickly repeated, touching him kindly.
The native's face brightened with a childish laugh. He jumped lightly out of bed and ran for his clothes.
"A fine model!" Józef exclaimed, slapping his back in a friendly way.
The native turned round with a start. In order to reassure him, therefore, Józef went through the whole of his Chukchee vocabulary; and though "Gem-Kamaka" certainly did not understand much of this disconnected conversation, he grinned and repeated every word. His clothes being still wet, he sat down as he was at the table where the friends were drinking tea, and consented to eat something too, talking uninterruptedly in his reindeer dialect, and showing his large white teeth as he laughed heartily. Before he left he again laid his hand gratefully on Stefan's shoulder and said "Brother!" He also promised to bring his wife and parents to see him.
"And bring Buza, Wopatka, and Kituwia."
The Chukchee's face clouded a moment. "Very well—and Buza and Wopatka. We will drink vodka," he said in the local Russian-Chukchee jargon.
"We will drink vodka."
After he was gone Józef embraced Stefan excitedly.