ikal, Michael therefore expected before long the appearance
of the Tartar scouts.

At each halt, Nadia climbed some hill and looked anxiously to the
Westward, but as yet no cloud of dust had signaled the approach of a
troop of horse.

Then the march was resumed; and when Michael felt that he was dragging
poor Nadia forward too rapidly, he went at a slower pace. They spoke
little, and only of Nicholas. The young girl recalled all that this
companion of a few days had done for them.

In answering, Michael tried to give Nadia some hope of which he did not
feel a spark himself, for he well knew that the unfortunate fellow would
not escape death.

One day Michael said to the girl, "You never speak to me of my mother,
Nadia."

His mother! Nadia had never wished to do so. Why renew his grief? Was
not the old Siberian dead? Had not her son given the last kiss to her
corpse stretched on the plain of Tomsk?

"Speak to me of her, Nadia," said Michael. "Speak--you will please me."

And then Nadia did what she had not done before. She told all that had
passed between Marfa and herself since their meeting at Omsk, where they
had seen each other for the first time. She said how an inexplicable
instinct had led her towards the old prisoner without knowing who she
was, and what encouragement she had received in return. At that time
Michael Strogoff had been to her but Nicholas Korpanoff.

"Whom I ought always to have been," replied Michael, his brow darkening.

Then later he added, "I have broken my oath, Nadia. I had sworn not to
see my mother!"

"But you did not try to see her, Michael," replied Nadia. "Chance alone
brought you into her presence."

"I had sworn, whatever might happen, not to betray myself."

"Michael, Michael! at sight of the lash raised upon Marfa, could you
refrain? No! No oath could prevent a son from succoring his mother!"

"I have broken my oath, Nadia," returned Michael. "May God and the
Father pardon me!"

"Michael," resumed the girl, "I have a question to ask you. Do not
answer it if you think you ought not. Nothing from you would vex me!"

"Speak, Nadia."

"Why, now that the Czar's letter has been taken from you, are you so
anxious to reach Irkutsk?"

Michael tightly pressed his companion's hand, but he did not answer.

"Did you know the contents of that letter before you left Moscow?"

"No, I did not know."

"Must I think, Michael, that the wish alone to place me in my father's
hand