Nicholas had
not been left on the road, but it was in vain that she looked among
the ruins, and searched among the dead. Was he reserved for some cruel
torture at Irkutsk?

Nadia, exhausted with hunger, was fortunate enough to find in one of the
houses a quantity of dried meat and "soukharis," pieces of bread,
which, dried by evaporation, preserve their nutritive qualities for an
indefinite time.

Michael and the girl loaded themselves with as much as they could carry.
They had thus a supply of food for several days, and as to water, there
would be no want of that in a district rendered fertile by the numerous
little affluents of the Angara.

They continued their journey. Michael walked with a firm step, and
only slackened his pace for his companion's sake. Nadia, not wishing to
retard him, obliged herself to walk. Happily, he could not see to what a
miserable state fatigue had reduced her.

However, Michael guessed it. "You are quite done up, poor child," he
said sometimes.

"No," she would reply.

"When you can no longer walk, I will carry you."

"Yes, Michael."

During this day they came to the little river Oka, but it was fordable,
and they had no difficulty in crossing. The sky was cloudy and the
temperature moderate. There was some fear that the rain might come on,
which would much have increased their misery. A few showers fell, but
they did not last.

They went on as before, hand in hand, speaking little, Nadia looking
about on every side; twice a day they halted. Six hours of the night
were given to sleep. In a few huts Nadia again found a little mutton;
but, contrary to Michael's hopes, there was not a single beast of burden
in the country; horses, camels--all had been either killed or carried
off. They must still continue to plod on across this weary steppe on
foot.

The third Tartar column, on its way to Irkutsk, had left plain traces:
here a dead horse, there an abandoned cart. The bodies of unfortunate
Siberians lay along the road, principally at the entrances to villages.
Nadia, overcoming her repugnance, looked at all these corpses!

The chief danger lay, not before, but behind. The advance guard of the
Emir's army, commanded by Ivan Ogareff, might at any moment appear.
The boats sent down the lower Yenisei must by this time have reached
Krasnoiarsk and been made use of. The road was therefore open to the
invaders. No Russian force could be opposed to them between Krasnoiarsk
and Lake Ba