Previous  - next

of the slopes of the Ural Mountains. But after Novo-Zaimskoe
begins the immense steppe.

At Ichim, as we have said, the reporters intended to stop, that is at
about four hundred and twenty miles from Ekaterenburg. There they
intended to be guided by circumstances as to their route across
the invaded country, either together or separately, according as their
news-hunting instinct set them on one track or another.

This road from Ekaterenburg to Ichim--which passes through Irkutsk--
was the only one which Michael could take. But, as he did not run
after news, and wished, on the contrary, to avoid the country
devastated by the invaders, he determined to stop nowhere.

"I am very happy to make part of my journey in your company,"
said he to his new companions, "but I must tell you that I am most anxious
to reach Omsk; for my sister and I are going to rejoin our mother.
Who can say whether we shall arrive before the Tartars reach the town!
I must therefore stop at the post-houses only long enough to
change horses, and must travel day and night."

"That is exactly what we intend doing," replied Blount.

"Good," replied Michael; "but do not lose an instant.
Buy or hire a carriage whose--"

"Whose hind wheels," added Alcide, "are warranted to arrive
at the same time as its front wheels."

Half an hour afterwards the energetic Frenchman had found a
tarantass in which he and his companion at once seated themselves.
Michael and Nadia once more entered their own carriage, and at twelve
o'clock the two vehicles left the town of Ekaterenburg together.

Nadia was at last in Siberia, on that long road which led
to Irkutsk. What must then have been the thoughts of the young girl?
Three strong swift horses were taking her across that land
of exile where her parent was condemned to live, for how long
she knew not, and so far from his native land. But she scarcely
noticed those long steppes over which the tarantass was rolling,
and which at one time she had despaired of ever seeing,
for her eyes were gazing at the horizon, beyond which she knew
her banished father was. She saw nothing of the country across
which she was traveling at the rate of fifteen versts an hour;
nothing of these regions of Western Siberia, so different from
those of the east. Here, indeed, were few cultivated fields;
the soil was poor, at least at the surface, but in its bowels
lay hid quantities of iron, copper, platina, and gold.
How can hands be found to cultivate the land, when it pays better
to burrow beneath the earth? The pickaxe is everywhere at work;
the spade nowhere.

However, Nadia's thoughts sometimes left the provinces
of Lake Baikal, and returned to her present situation.
Her father's image faded away, and was replaced by that of her
generous companion as he first appeared on the Vladimir railroad.
She recalled his attentions during that journey, his arrival at
the police-station, the hearty simplicity with which he had called
her sister, his kindness to her in the descent of the Volga,

Previous  - next