have done more.

The boat was in the middle of the current, at nearly equal distances
from either shore, and being carried down at the rate of two versts an
hour, when Michael, springing to his feet, bent his gaze up the river.

Several boats, aided by oars as well as by the current, were coming
swiftly down upon them.

Michael's brow contracted, and a cry escaped him.

"What is the matter?" asked the girl.

But before Michael had time to reply one of the boatmen exclaimed in an
accent of terror:

"The Tartars! the Tartars!"

There were indeed boats full of soldiers, and in a few minutes they must
reach the ferryboat, it being too heavily laden to escape from them.

The terrified boatmen uttered exclamations of despair and dropped their
poles.

"Courage, my friends!" cried Michael; "courage! Fifty roubles for you if
we reach the right bank before the boats overtake us."

Incited by these words, the boatmen again worked manfully but it soon
become evident that they could not escape the Tartars.

It was scarcely probable that they would pass without attacking them.
On the contrary, there was everything to be feared from robbers such as
these.

"Do not be afraid, Nadia," said Michael; "but be ready for anything."

"I am ready," replied Nadia.

"Even to leap into the water when I tell you?"

"Whenever you tell me."

"Have confidence in me, Nadia."

"I have, indeed!"

The Tartar boats were now only a hundred feet distant. They carried a
detachment of Bokharian soldiers, on their way to reconnoiter around
Omsk.

The ferryboat was still two lengths from the shore. The boatmen
redoubled their efforts. Michael himself seized a pole and wielded it
with superhuman strength. If he could land the tarantass and horses, and
dash off with them, there was some chance of escaping the Tartars, who
were not mounted.

But all their efforts were in vain. "Saryn na kitchou!" shouted the
soldiers from the first boat.

Michael recognized the Tartar war-cry, which is usually answered by
lying flat on the ground. As neither he nor the boatmen obeyed a volley
was let fly, and two of the horses were mortally wounded.

At the next moment a violent blow was felt. The boats had run into the
ferryboat.

"Come, Nadia!" cried Michael, ready to jump overboard.

The girl was about to follow him, when a blow from a lance struck him,
and he was thrown into the water. The current swept him away, his hand
raised for an instant