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the agents, but they had not to interfere, as no one
ventured to offer the slightest resistance to their orders.
Exactly at the hour the last clang of the bell sounded,
the powerful wheels of the steamboat began to beat the water,
and the Caucasus passed rapidly between the two towns of which
Nijni-Novgorod is composed.

Michael Strogoff and the young Livonian had taken a passage on board
the Caucasus. Their embarkation was made without any difficulty.
As is known, the podorojna, drawn up in the name of Nicholas Korpanoff,
authorized this merchant to be accompanied on his journey
to Siberia. They appeared, therefore, to be a brother and
sister traveling under the protection of the imperial police.
Both, seated together at the stern, gazed at the receding town,
so disturbed by the governor's order. Michael had as yet
said nothing to the girl, he had not even questioned her.
He waited until she should speak to him, when that was necessary.
She had been anxious to leave that town, in which, but for
the providential intervention of this unexpected protector,
she would have remained imprisoned. She said nothing,
but her looks spoke her thanks.

The Volga, the Rha of the ancients, the largest river
in all Europe, is almost three thousand miles in length.
Its waters, rather unwholesome in its upper part, are improved
at Nijni-Novgorod by those of the Oka, a rapid affluent,
issuing from the central provinces of Russia. The system of
Russian canals and rivers has been justly compared to a gigantic
tree whose branches spread over every part of the empire.
The Volga forms the trunk of this tree, and it has for roots
seventy mouths opening into the Caspian Sea. It is navigable
as far as Rjef, a town in the government of Tver, that is,
along the greater part of its course.

The steamboats plying between Perm and Nijni-Novgorod rapidly perform
the two hundred and fifty miles which separate this town from the town
of Kasan. It is true that these boats have only to descend the Volga,
which adds nearly two miles of current per hour to their own speed;
but on arriving at the confluence of the Kama, a little below Kasan,
they are obliged to quit the Volga for the smaller river, up which
they ascend to Perm. Powerful as were her machines, the Caucasus
could not thus, after entering the Kama, make against the current
more than ten miles an hour. Including an hour's stoppage at Kasan,
the voyage from Nijni-Novgorod to Perm would take from between sixty
to sixty-two hours.

The steamer was very well arranged, and the passengers, according to
their condition or resources, occupied three distinct classes on board.
Michael Strogoff had taken care to engage two first-class cabins,
so that his young companion might retire into hers whenever she liked.

The Caucasus was loaded with passengers of every description.
A number of Asiatic traders had thought it best to leave
Nijni-Novgorod immediately. In that part of the steamer reserved

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