"We must see if there is anyone left alive. Perhaps we can help them."
"No, I shan't go; I'm afraid. You can go yourselves. I'll lead the dogs down to the valley. God!... God! Thy will be done!"
Stefan took a revolver from the holster and went into the dark interior of a tent. He saw a cold hearth, sprinkled with snow, and, hanging above it, a cauldron with meat which had frozen. Having lighted a match, he perceived a Chukchee lying naked to the waist, with a terrible wound in his chest. "Is there anyone here?" he asked in a trembling voice, not daring to enter the inner tent by the low hanging.
Instead of an answer, he only heard the tent skins rubbing together as the wind tore at them, and the missionary's prayers. He therefore bent down and crawled under the hanging; but he instantly drew back. The whole inner tent seemed to be full of contorted human bodies. He mastered himself, however, took the tallow candle from the priest, and crept in. Here he found the naked bodies of murdered women and children. It must all have happened quite recently, for the blood was still red, the bodies had the look of marble, and the cuts were still wide open; but they were all stark and cold as stone. The frost had finished what the knife had left undone.
One of the young women had evidently tried to escape. She had torn the outer tent covering and endeavoured to jump out, but had been caught at the entrance; the child, over whom she was bending with an imploring gesture, must have hampered her movements, and she had been run through the back and nailed to the ground with her baby. Stefan looked at her face and recognized his recent guest, Impynena, the wife of Aimurgin.
"This is frightful! Let us escape!" they all exclaimed with one accord, filled with fear and horror.
"Women and children too! There is not a living soul left!"
"Who is it? What can——?"
"Oh, don't ask!" Buza said, shaking his head. "I will tell you afterwards; let's go now!"
"At once—in a wind like this and at night?"