above the waves, and then he disappeared.

Nadia uttered a cry, but before she had time to throw herself after
him she was seized and dragged into one of the boats. The boatmen were
killed, the ferryboat left to drift away, and the Tartars continued to
descend the Irtych.

CHAPTER XIV MOTHER AND SON

OMSK is the official capital of Western Siberia. It is not the most
important city of the government of that name, for Tomsk has more
inhabitants and is larger. But it is at Omsk that the Governor-General
of this the first half of Asiatic Russia resides. Omsk, properly so
called, is composed of two distinct towns: one which is exclusively
inhabited by the authorities and officials; the other more especially
devoted to the Siberian merchants, although, indeed, the trade of the
town is of small importance.

This city has about 12,000 to 13,000 inhabitants. It is defended by
walls, but these are merely of earth, and could afford only insufficient
protection. The Tartars, who were well aware of this fact, consequently
tried at this period to carry it by main force, and in this they
succeeded, after an investment of a few days.

The garrison of Omsk, reduced to two thousand men, resisted valiantly.
But driven back, little by little, from the mercantile portion of the
place, they were compelled to take refuge in the upper town.

It was there that the Governor-General, his officers, and soldiers had
entrenched themselves. They had made the upper quarter of Omsk a kind of
citadel, and hitherto they held out well in this species of improvised
"kreml," but without much hope of the promised succor. The Tartar
troops, who were descending the Irtych, received every day fresh
reinforcements, and, what was more serious, they were led by an officer,
a traitor to his country, but a man of much note, and of an audacity
equal to any emergency. This man was Colonel Ivan Ogareff.

Ivan Ogareff, terrible as any of the most savage Tartar chieftains,
was an educated soldier. Possessing on his mother's side some Mongolian
blood, he delighted in deceptive strategy and ambuscades, stopping short
of nothing when he desired to fathom some secret or to set some trap.
Deceitful by nature, he willingly had recourse to the vilest trickery;
lying when occasion demanded, excelling in the adoption of all disguises
and in every species of deception. Further, he was cruel, and had even
acted as an executioner. Feofar-Khan possessed in him a lieutena