The savages hurried Ivan along as rapidly as they could; and soon entered a deep and narrow ravine, which about the middle parted into two.  The narrowest path was selected, and the dwelling of the natives soon reached.  It was a cavern, the narrow entrance of which they crawled through; Ivan followed the leader, and soon found himself in a large and wonderful cave.  It was by nature divided into several compartments, and contained a party of twenty men, as many or more women, and numerous children.  It was warmed in two ways—­by wood-fires and grease-lamps, and by a bubbling semi-sulphurous spring, that rushed up through a narrow hole, and then fell away into a deep well, that carried its warm waters to mingle with the icy sea.  The acrid smoke escaped by holes in the roof.  Ivan, his arms and legs bound, was thrust into a separate compartment filled with furs, and formed by a projection of the rock and the skin-boats which this primitive race employed to cross the most stormy seas.  He was almost stunned; he lay for a while without thought or motion.  Gradually he recovered, and gazed around; all was night, save above, where by a narrow orifice he saw the smoke which hung in clouds around the roof escaping.  He expected death.  He knew the savage race he was among, who hated interference with their hunting-grounds, and whose fish he and his party had taken.  What, therefore, was his surprise, when from the summit of the roof, he heard a gentle voice whispering in soft accents his own name.  His ears must, he thought, deceive him.  The hubbub close at hand was terrible.  A dispute was going on.  Men, women. and children all joined, and yet he had heard the word “Ivan.”  “Kolina,” he replied, in equally low but clear tones.  As he spoke a knife rolled near him.  But he could not touch it.  Then a dark form filled the orifice about a dozen feet above his head, and something moved down among projecting stones, and then Kolina stood by him.  In an instant Ivan was free, and an axe in his hand.  The exit was before them.  Steps were cut in the rock, to ascend to the upper entrance, near which Ivan had been placed without fear, because tied.  But a rush was heard, and the friends had only time to throw themselves deeper into the cave, when four men rushed in, knife in hand, to immolate the victim.  Such had been the decision come to after the debate.

The lamps revealed the escape of the fugitive.  A wild cry drew all the men together, and then up they scampered along the rugged projections, and the barking of the dogs as they fled showed that they were in hot and eager chase.  Ivan and Kolina lost no time.  They advanced boldly, knife and hatchet in hand, sprang amid the terrified women, darted across their horrid cavern, and before one of them had recovered from her fright, were in the open air.  On they ran in the gloom for some distance, when they suddenly heard muttering voices.  Down they sank behind the first large stone, concealing themselves as well as they could in the snow.  The party moved slowly on toward them.