, and beside him walked the Khans of Khokhand and
Koundouge and the grand dignitaries of the Khanats.

At the same moment appeared on the terrace the chief of Feofar's wives,
the queen, if this title may be given to the sultana of the states
of Bokhara. But, queen or slave, this woman of Persian origin was
wonderfully beautiful. Contrary to the Mahometan custom, and no doubt by
some caprice of the Emir, she had her face uncovered. Her hair, divided
into four plaits, fell over her dazzling white shoulders, scarcely
concealed by a veil of silk worked in gold, which fell from the back
of a cap studded with gems of the highest value. Under her blue-silk
petticoat, fell the "zirdjameh" of silken gauze, and above the sash
lay the "pirahn." But from the head to the little feet, such was the
profusion of jewels--gold beads strung on silver threads, chaplets of
turquoises, "firouzehs" from the celebrated mines of Elbourz, necklaces
of cornelians, agates, emeralds, opals, and sapphires--that her dress
seemed to be literally made of precious stones. The thousands of
diamonds which sparkled on her neck, arms, hands, at her waist, and at
her feet might have been valued at almost countless millions of roubles.

The Emir and the Khans dismounted, as did the dignitaries who escorted
them. All entered a magnificent tent erected on the center of the first
terrace. Before the tent, as usual, the Koran was laid.

Feofar's lieutenant did not make them wait, and before five o'clock the
trumpets announced his arrival. Ivan Ogareff--the Scarred Cheek, as
he was already nick-named--wearing the uniform of a Tartar officer,
dismounted before the Emir's tent. He was accompanied by a party of
soldiers from the camp at Zabediero, who ranged up at the sides of the
square, in the middle of which a place for the sports was reserved. A
large scar could be distinctly seen cut obliquely across the traitor's
face.

Ogareff presented his principal officers to the Emir, who, without
departing from the coldness which composed the main part of his dignity,
received them in a way which satisfied them that they stood well in the
good graces of their chief.

At least so thought Harry Blount and Alcide Jolivet, the two
inseparables, now associated together in the chase after news. After
leaving Zabediero, they had proceeded rapidly to Tomsk. The plan they
had agreed upon was to leave the Tartars as soon as possible, and to
join a Russian regiment, and, if the