il is quite right!" he cried. "He is perfectly right,
my dear fellow. It is not his fault if we did not know how to follow
him!"

Then drawing several copecks from his pocket, "Here my friend," said he,
handing them to the iemschik; "take them. If you have not earned them,
that is not your fault."

This redoubled Mr. Blount's irritation. He even began to speak of a
lawsuit against the owner of the telga.

"A lawsuit in Russia, my dear fellow!" cried Alcide. "Things must indeed
change should it ever be brought to a conclusion! Did you never hear the
story of the wet-nurse who claimed payment of twelve months' nursing of
some poor little infant?"

"I never heard it," replied Harry Blount.

"Then you do not know what that suckling had become by the time judgment
was given in favor of the nurse?"

"What was he, pray?"

"Colonel of the Imperial Guard!"

At this reply all burst into a laugh.

Alcide, enchanted with his own joke, drew out his notebook, and in it
wrote the following memorandum, destined to figure in a forthcoming
French and Russian dictionary: "Telga, a Russian carriage with four
wheels, that is when it starts; with two wheels, when it arrives at its
destination."

CHAPTER XII PROVOCATION

EKATERENBURG, geographically, is an Asiatic city; for it is situated
beyond the Ural Mountains, on the farthest eastern slopes of the chain.
Nevertheless, it belongs to the government of Perm; and, consequently,
is included in one of the great divisions of European Russia. It is as
though a morsel of Siberia lay in Russian jaws.

Neither Michael nor his companions were likely to experience the
slightest difficulty in obtaining means of continuing their journey in
so large a town as Ekaterenburg. It was founded in 1723, and has since
become a place of considerable size, for in it is the chief mint of the
empire. There also are the headquarters of the officials employed in
the management of the mines. Thus the town is the center of an important
district, abounding in manufactories principally for the working and
refining of gold and platina.

Just now the population of Ekaterenburg had greatly increased; many
Russians and Siberians, menaced by the Tartar invasion, having collected
there. Thus, though it had been so troublesome a matter to find horses
and vehicles when going to Ekaterenburg, there was no difficulty in
leaving it; for under present circumstances few travelers cared to
venture on the Siberian