e was bound instead, placed across a
horse, and the detachment galloped off.

The rope which fastened Michael, gnawed through by him, broke by the
sudden start of the horse, and the half-tipsy rider galloped on without
perceiving that his prisoner had escaped.

Michael and Nadia found themselves alone on the road.

CHAPTER IX IN THE STEPPE

MICHAEL STROGOFF and Nadia were once more as free as they had been in
the journey from Perm to the banks of the Irtych. But how the conditions
under which they traveled were altered! Then, a comfortable tarantass,
fresh horses, well-kept post-horses assured the rapidity of their
journey. Now they were on foot; it was utterly impossible to procure any
other means of locomotion, they were without resources, not knowing how
to obtain even food, and they had still nearly three hundred miles to
go! Moreover, Michael could now only see with Nadia's eyes.

As to the friend whom chance had given them, they had just lost him,
and fearful might be his fate. Michael had thrown himself down under the
brushwood at the side of the road. Nadia stood beside him, waiting for
the word from him to continue the march.

It was ten o'clock. The sun had more than three hours before disappeared
below the horizon. There was not a house in sight. The last of the
Tartars was lost in the distance. Michael and Nadia were quite alone.

"What will they do with our friend?" exclaimed the girl. "Poor Nicholas!
Our meeting will have been fatal to him!" Michael made no response.

"Michael," continued Nadia, "do you not know that he defended you when
you were the Tartars' sport; that he risked his life for me?"

Michael was still silent. Motionless, his face buried in his hands;
of what was he thinking? Perhaps, although he did not answer, he heard
Nadia speak.

Yes! he heard her, for when the young girl added, "Where shall I lead
you, Michael?"

"To Irkutsk!" he replied.

"By the highroad?"

"Yes, Nadia."

Michael was still the same man who had sworn, whatever happened, to
accomplish his object. To follow the highroad, was certainly to go the
shortest way. If the vanguard of Feofar-Khan's troops appeared, it would
then be time to strike across the country.

Nadia took Michael's hand, and they started.

The next morning, the 13th of September, twenty versts further, they
made a short halt in the village of Joulounov-skoe. It was burnt and
deserted. All night Nadia had tried to see if the body of