ought the Caucasus was going without you," said the latter.

"Bah!" answered Jolivet, "I should soon have caught you up again, by
chartering a boat at my cousin's expense, or by traveling post at twenty
copecks a verst, and on horseback. What could I do? It was so long a way
from the quay to the telegraph office."

"Have you been to the telegraph office?" asked Harry Blount, biting his
lips.

"That's exactly where I have been!" answered Jolivet, with his most
amiable smile.

"And is it still working to Kolyvan?"

"That I don't know, but I can assure you, for instance, that it is
working from Kasan to Paris."

"You sent a dispatch to your cousin?"

"With enthusiasm."

"You had learnt then--?"

"Look here, little father, as the Russians say," replied Alcide Jolivet,
"I'm a good fellow, and I don't wish to keep anything from you. The
Tartars, and Feofar-Khan at their head, have passed Semipolatinsk, and
are descending the Irtish. Do what you like with that!"

What! such important news, and Harry Blount had not known it; and his
rival, who had probably learned it from some inhabitant of Kasan, had
already transmitted it to Paris. The English paper was distanced! Harry
Blount, crossing his hands behind him, walked off and seated himself in
the stern without uttering a word.

About ten o'clock in the morning, the young Livonian, leaving her cabin,
appeared on deck. Michael Strogoff went forward and took her hand.
"Look, sister!" said he, leading her to the bows of the Caucasus.

The view was indeed well worth seeing. The Caucasus had reached the
confluence of the Volga and the Kama. There she would leave the former
river, after having descended it for nearly three hundred miles, to
ascend the latter for a full three hundred.

The Kama was here very wide, and its wooded banks lovely. A few white
sails enlivened the sparkling water. The horizon was closed by a line of
hills covered with aspens, alders, and sometimes large oaks.

But these beauties of nature could not distract the thoughts of the
young Livonian even for an instant. She had left her hand in that of her
companion, and turning to him, "At what distance are we from Moscow?"
she asked.

"Nine hundred versts," answered Michael.

"Nine hundred, out of seven thousand!" murmured the girl.

The bell now announced the breakfast hour. Nadia followed Michael
Strogoff to the restaurant. She ate little, and as a poor girl whose
means are small would do. M