ot to know who
I am, nor what I am come to do in Siberia. I ask you to keep my secret.
Will you promise me to do so?"

"On my honor," answered Jolivet.

"On my word as a gentleman," added Blount.

"Good, gentlemen."

"Can we be of any use to you?" asked Harry Blount. "Could we not help
you to accomplish your task?"

"I prefer to act alone," replied Michael.

"But those blackguards have destroyed your sight," said Alcide.

"I have Nadia, and her eyes are enough for me!"

In half an hour the raft left the little port of Livenitchnaia, and
entered the river. It was five in the evening and getting dusk. The
night promised to be dark and very cold also, for the temperature was
already below zero.

Alcide and Blount, though they had promised to keep Michael's secret,
did not leave him. They talked in a low voice, and the blind man, adding
what they told him to what he already knew, was able to form an exact
idea of the state of things. It was certain that the Tartars had
actually invested Irkutsk, and that the three columns had effected a
junction. There was no doubt that the Emir and Ivan Ogareff were before
the capital.

But why did the Czar's courier exhibit such haste to get there, now that
the Imperial letter could no longer be given by him to the Grand Duke,
and when he did not even know the contents of it? Alcide Jolivet and
Blount could not understand it any more than Nadia had done.

No one spoke of the past, except when Jolivet thought it his duty to say
to Michael, "We owe you some apology for not shaking hands with you when
we separated at Ichim."

"No, you had reason to think me a coward!"

"At any rate," added the Frenchman, "you knouted the face of that
villain finely, and he will carry the mark of it for a long time!"

"No, not a long time!" replied Michael quietly.

Half an hour after leaving Livenitchnaia, Blount and his companion were
acquainted with the cruel trials through which Michael and his companion
had successively passed. They could not but heartily admire his energy,
which was only equaled by the young girl's devotion. Their opinion of
Michael was exactly what the Czar had expressed at Moscow: "Indeed, this
is a Man!"

The raft swiftly threaded its way among the blocks of ice which were
carried along in the current of the Angara. A moving panorama was
displayed on both sides of the river, and, by an optical illusion, it
appeared as if it was the raft which was motionless befor