your sword!"

"He sees!" said Nadia. "Gracious Heaven, is it possible!"

Ogareff felt that he was lost. But mustering all his courage, he sprang
forward on his impassible adversary. The two blades crossed, but at a
touch from Michael's knife, wielded in the hand of the Siberian hunter,
the sword flew in splinters, and the wretch, stabbed to the heart, fell
lifeless on the ground.

At the same moment, the door was thrown open. The Grand Duke,
accompanied by some of his officers, appeared on the threshold. The
Grand Duke advanced. In the body lying on the ground, he recognized the
man whom he believed to be the Czar's courier.

Then, in a threatening voice, "Who killed that man?" he asked.

"I," replied Michael.

One of the officers put a pistol to his temple, ready to fire.

"Your name?" asked the Grand Duke, before giving the order for his
brains to be blown out.

"Your Highness," answered Michael, "ask me rather the name of the man
who lies at your feet!"

"That man, I know him! He is a servant of my brother! He is the Czar's
courier!"

"That man, your Highness, is not a courier of the Czar! He is Ivan
Ogareff!"

"Ivan Ogareff!" exclaimed the Grand Duke.

"Yes, Ivan the Traitor!"

"But who are you, then?"

"Michael Strogoff!"

CHAPTER XV CONCLUSION

MICHAEL STROGOFF was not, had never been, blind. A purely human
phenomenon, at the same time moral and physical, had neutralized the
action of the incandescent blade which Feofar's executioner had passed
before his eyes.

It may be remembered, that at the moment of the execution, Marfa
Strogoff was present, stretching out her hands towards her son. Michael
gazed at her as a son would gaze at his mother, when it is for the last
time. The tears, which his pride in vain endeavored to subdue, welling
up from his heart, gathered under his eyelids, and volatiliz-ing on the
cornea, had saved his sight. The vapor formed by his tears interposing
between the glowing saber and his eyeballs, had been sufficient to
annihilate the action of the heat. A similar effect is produced, when a
workman smelter, after dipping his hand in vapor, can with impunity hold
it over a stream of melted iron.

Michael had immediately understood the danger in which he would be
placed should he make known his secret to anyone. He at once saw, on
the other hand, that he might make use of his supposed blindness for
the accomplishment of his designs. Because it was believed that he