dvice," answered Ivan Ogareff quickly, "is to march to meet the
sun. It is to give the grass of the eastern steppes to the Turcoman
horses to consume. It is to take Irkutsk, the capital of the eastern
provinces, and with it a hostage, the possession of whom is worth a
whole country. In the place of the Czar, the Grand Duke his brother must
fall into your hands."

This was the great result aimed at by Ivan Ogareff. To listen to him,
one would have taken him for one of the cruel descendants of Stephan
Razine, the celebrated pirate who ravaged Southern Russia in the
eighteenth century. To seize the Grand Duke, murder him pitilessly,
would fully satisfy his hatred. Besides, with the capture of Irkutsk,
all Eastern Siberia would pass to the Tartars.

"It shall be thus, Ivan," replied Feofar.

"What are your orders, Takhsir?"

"To-day our headquarters shall be removed to Tomsk."

Ogareff bowed, and, followed by the housch-begui, he retired to execute
the Emir's orders.

As he was about to mount his horse, to return to the outposts, a tumult
broke out at some distance, in the part of the camp reserved for the
prisoners. Shouts were heard, and two or three shots fired. Perhaps it
was an attempt at revolt or escape, which must be summarily suppressed.

Ivan Ogareff and the housch-begui walked forward and almost immediately
two men, whom the soldiers had not been able to keep back appeared
before them.

The housch-begui, without more information, made a sign which was an
order for death, and the heads of the two prisoners would have rolled on
the ground had not Ogareff uttered a few words which arrested the sword
already raised aloft. The Russian had perceived that these prisoners
were strangers, and he ordered them to be brought to him.

They were Harry Blount and Alcide jolivet.

On Ogareff's arrival in the camp, they had demanded to be conducted to
his presence. The soldiers had refused. In consequence, a struggle,
an attempt at flight, shots fired which happily missed the two
correspondents, but their execution would not have been long delayed, if
it had not been for the intervention of the Emir's lieutenant.

The latter observed the prisoners for some moments, they being
absolutely unknown to him. They had been present at that scene in
the post-house at Ichim, in which Michael Strogoff had been struck by
Ogareff; but the brutal traveler had paid no attention to the persons
then collected in the common room.

B