Under these peculiar circumstances it might have been allowable to
postpone the journey till the morning. Michael Strogoff, however, had
not hesitated, he had no right to stop, but then--and it began to cause
him some anxiety--what possible reason could those travelers in the
telga ahead have for being so imprudent?

Michael remained thus on the look-out for some time. About eleven
o'clock lightning began to blaze continuously in the sky. The shadows of
huge pines appeared and disappeared in the rapid light. Sometimes when
the tarantass neared the side of the road, deep gulfs, lit up by the
flashes, could be seen yawning beneath them. From time to time, on
their vehicle giving a worse lurch than usual, they knew that they were
crossing a bridge of roughly-hewn planks thrown over some chasm, thunder
appearing actually to be rumbling below them. Besides this, a booming
sound filled the air, which increased as they mounted higher. With these
different noises rose the shouts of the iemschik, sometimes scolding,
sometimes coaxing his poor beasts, who were suffering more from the
oppression of the air than the roughness of the roads. Even the bells on
the shafts could no longer rouse them, and they stumbled every instant.

"At what time shall we reach the top of the ridge?" asked Michael of the
iemschik.

"At one o'clock in the morning if we ever get there at all," replied he,
with a shake of his head.

"Why, my friend, this will not be your first storm in the mountains,
will it?"

"No, and pray God it may not be my last!"

"Are you afraid?"

"No, I'm not afraid, but I repeat that I think you were wrong in
starting."

"I should have been still more wrong had I stayed."

"Hold up, my pigeons!" cried the iemschik; it was his business to obey,
not to question.

Just then a distant noise was heard, shrill whistling through the
atmosphere, so calm a minute before. By the light of a dazzling flash,
almost immediately followed by a tremendous clap of thunder, Michael
could see huge pines on a high peak, bending before the blast. The
wind was unchained, but as yet it was the upper air alone which was
disturbed. Successive crashes showed that many of the trees had been
unable to resist the burst of the hurricane. An avalanche of shattered
trunks swept across the road and dashed over the precipice on the left,
two hundred feet in front of the tarantass.

The horses stopped short.

"Get up, my pretty doves!" cried the