speak of Ivan Ogareff?"

"Yes."

"You know that it is not right to betray one's country!"

"No... it is not right..." answered Michael, who wished to remain
unmoved.

"Little father," continued Nicholas, "it seems to me that you are not
half indignant enough when Ivan Ogareff is spoken of. Your Russian heart
ought to leap when his name is uttered."

"Believe me, my friend, I hate him more than you can ever hate him,"
said Michael.

"It is not possible," replied Nicholas; "no, it is not possible! When
I think of Ivan Ogareff, of the harm which he is doing to our sacred
Russia, I get into such a rage that if I could get hold of him--"

"If you could get hold of him, friend?"

"I think I should kill him."

"And I, I am sure of it," returned Michael quietly.

CHAPTER VII THE PASSAGE OF THE YENISEI

AT nightfall, on the 25th of August, the kibitka came in sight of
Krasnoiarsk. The journey from Tomsk had taken eight days. If it had not
been accomplished as rapidly as it might, it was because Nicholas had
slept little. Consequently, it was impossible to increase his horse's
pace, though in other hands, the journey would not have taken sixty
hours.

Happily, there was no longer any fear of Tartars. Not a scout had
appeared on the road over which the kibitka had just traveled. This
was strange enough, and evidently some serious cause had prevented the
Emir's troops from marching without delay upon Irkutsk. Something had
occurred. A new Russian corps, hastily raised in the government of
Yeniseisk, had marched to Tomsk to endeavor to retake the town. But,
being too weak to withstand the Emir's troops, now concentrated there,
they had been forced to effect a retreat. Feofar-Khan, including his own
soldiers, and those of the Khanats of Khokhand and Koun-douze, had
now under his command two hundred and fifty thousand men, to which
the Russian government could not as yet oppose a sufficient force. The
invasion could not, therefore, be immediately stopped, and the whole
Tartar army might at once march upon Irkutsk. The battle of Tomsk was on
the 22nd of August, though this Michael did not know, but it explained
why the vanguard of the Emir's army had not appeared at Krasnoiarsk by
the 25th.

However, though Michael Strogoff could not know the events which had
occurred since his departure, he at least knew that he was several days
in advance of the Tartars, and that he need not despair of reaching
before them the