rapidly
from one side to the other he could not have seen Michael Strogoff,
owing to his precipitous retreat.

The detachment went at full trot into the narrow street. Neither the
officer nor his escort concerned themselves about the inhabitants.
Several unlucky ones had scarcely time to make way for their passage.
There were a few half-stifled cries, to which thrusts of the lance gave
an instant reply, and the street was immediately cleared.

When the escort had disappeared, "Who is that officer?" asked Michael
Strogoff. And while putting the question his face was pale as that of a
corpse.

"It is Ivan Ogareff," replied the Siberian, in a deep voice which
breathed hatred.

"He!" cried Michael Strogoff, from whom the word escaped with a fury he
could not conquer. He had just recognized in this officer the traveler
who had struck him at the posting-house of Ichim. And, although he had
only caught a glimpse of him, it burst upon his mind, at the same time,
that this traveler was the old Zingari whose words he had overheard in
the market place of Nijni-Novgorod.

Michael Strogoff was not mistaken. The two men were one and the same.
It was under the garb of a Zingari, mingling with the band of Sangarre,
that Ivan Ogareff had been able to leave the town of Nijni-Novgorod,
where he had gone to seek his confidants. Sangarre and her Zingari, well
paid spies, were absolutely devoted to him. It was he who, during the
night, on the fair-ground had uttered that singular sentence, which
Michael Strogoff could not understand; it was he who was voyaging on
board the Caucasus, with the whole of the Bohemian band; it was he who,
by this other route, from Kasan to Ichim, across the Urals, had reached
Omsk, where now he held supreme authority.

Ivan Ogareff had been barely three days at Omsk, and had it not been for
their fatal meeting at Ichim, and for the event which had detained
him three days on the banks of the Irtych, Michael Strogoff would have
evidently beaten him on the way to Irkutsk.

And who knows how many misfortunes would have been avoided in the
future! In any case--and now more than ever--Michael Strogoff must
avoid Ivan Ogareff, and contrive not to be seen. When the moment of
encountering him face to face should arrive, he knew how to meet it,
even should the traitor be master of the whole of Siberia.

The mujik and Michael resumed their way and arrived at the
posting-house. To leave Omsk by one of the breaches