, the smile on his rosy face never faded for
an instant.

The kibitka was thus in the whirlpool, and the horse was nearly
exhausted, when, all at once, Michael, throwing off such of his garments
as might impede him, jumped into the water; then, seizing with a strong
hand the bridle of the terrified horse, he gave him such an impulse that
he managed to struggle out of the circle, and getting again into the
current, the kibitka drifted along anew.

"Hurrah!" exclaimed Nicholas.

Two hours after leaving the wharf, the kibitka had crossed the widest
arm of the river, and had landed on an island more than six versts below
the starting point.

There the horse drew the cart onto the bank, and an hour's rest was
given to the courageous animal; then the island having been crossed
under the shade of its magnificent birches, the kibitka found itself on
the shore of the smaller arm of the Yenisei.

This passage was much easier; no whirlpools broke the course of the
river in this second bed; but the current was so rapid that the kibitka
only reached the opposite side five versts below. They had drifted
eleven versts in all.

These great Siberian rivers across which no bridges have as yet been
thrown, are serious obstacles to the facility of communication. All had
been more or less unfortunate to Michael Strogoff. On the Irtych, the
boat which carried him and Nadia had been attacked by Tartars. On the
Obi, after his horse had been struck by a bullet, he had only by a
miracle escaped from the horsemen who were pursuing him. In fact, this
passage of the Yenisei had been performed the least disastrously.

"That would not have been so amusing," exclaimed Nicholas, rubbing his
hands, as they disembarked on the right bank of the river, "if it had
not been so difficult."

"That which has only been difficult to us, friend," answered Michael
Strogoff, "will, perhaps, be impossible to the Tartars."

CHAPTER VIII A HARE CROSSES THE ROAD

MICHAEL STROGOFF might at last hope that the road to Irkutsk was clear.
He had distanced the Tartars, now detained at Tomsk, and when the Emir's
soldiers should arrive at Krasnoiarsk they would find only a deserted
town. There being no communication between the two banks of the Yenisei,
a delay of some days would be caused until a bridge of boats could be
established, and to accomplish this would be a difficult undertaking.
For the first time since the encounter with Ivan Ogareff at Omsk, the
c