?"

"It was not Michael Strogoff."

"Dost thou know, old woman, that I can torture thee until thou avowest
the truth?"

"I have spoken the truth, and torture will not cause me to alter my
words in any way."

"This Siberian was not Michael Strogoff?" asked a second time Ivan
Ogareff.

"No, it was not he," replied a second time Marfa Strogoff. "Do you think
that for anything in the world I would deny a son whom God has given
me?"

Ivan Ogareff regarded with an evil eye the old woman who braved him to
the face. He did not doubt but that she had recognized her son in this
young Siberian. Now if this son had first renounced his mother, and if
his mother renounced him in her turn, it could occur only from the
most weighty motive. Ogareff had therefore no doubt that the pretended
Nicholas Korpanoff was Michael Strogoff, courier of the Czar, seeking
concealment under a false name, and charged with some mission which it
would have been important for him to know. He therefore at once gave
orders for his pursuit. Then "Let this woman be conducted to Tomsk," he
said.

While the soldiers brutally dragged her off, he added between his teeth,
"When the moment arrives I shall know how to make her speak, this old
sorceress!"

CHAPTER XV THE MARSHES OF THE BARABA

IT was fortunate that Michael Strogoff had left the posting-house so
promptly. The orders of Ivan Ogareff had been immediately transmitted to
all the approaches of the city, and a full description of Michael sent
to all the various commandants, in order to prevent his departure from
Omsk. But he had already passed through one of the breaches in the wall;
his horse was galloping over the steppe, and the chances of escape were
in his favor.

It was on the 29th of July, at eight o'clock in the evening, that
Michael Strogoff had left Omsk. This town is situated about halfway
between Moscow and Irkutsk, where it was necessary that he should arrive
within ten days if he wished to get ahead of the Tartar columns. It was
evident that the unlucky chance which had brought him into the presence
of his mother had betrayed his incognito. Ivan Ogareff was no longer
ignorant of the fact that a courier of the Czar had just passed Omsk,
taking the direction of Irkutsk. The dispatches which this courier bore
must have been of immense importance. Michael Strogoff knew, therefore,
that every effort would be made to capture him.

But what he did not know, and could not know, was