It was night, as his watch went, when Paul Davidovich started up the delta of the Kobuk River with him in a lighterage company's boat.

But there was no darkness.

In the afternoon of the fourth day they came to the Redstone, two hundred miles above the mouth of the Kobuk as the river winds.

They had supper together on the shore.

After that Paul Davidovich turned back with the slow sweep of the current, waving his hand until he was out of sight.
Not until the sound of the Russian's motor-boat was lost in distance did Alan sense fully the immensity of the freedom that swept upon him.