And to such purpose did he
tell, that Ivan gave the word to his men to march, and on either
side of Negore marched the men with the whips, that he might not
run away. And when he made that he was weak of his sickness, and
stumbled and walked not so fast as they walked, they laid their
lashes upon him till he screamed with pain and discovered new
strength. And when Karduk told him all would he well with him when
they had overtaken his tribe, he asked, "And then may I rest and
move not?"
Continually he asked, "And then may I rest and move not?"
And while he appeared very sick and looked about him with dull
eyes, he noted the fighting strength of Ivan's men, and noted with
satisfaction that Ivan did not recognize him as the man he had
beaten before the gates of the fort. It was a strange following
his dull eyes saw. There were Slavonian hunters, fair-skinned and
mighty-muscled; short, squat Finns, with flat noses and round
faces; Siberian half-breeds, whose noses were more like eagle-
beaks; and lean, slant-eyed men, who bore in their veins the Mongol
and Tartar blood as well as the blood of the Slav.
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