t better off
from this outbreak of his?"

"I do not know or think anything except that I should have done much
the same in his position," replied Alcide. "What a scar the Colonel has
received! Bah! one must boil over sometimes. We should have had water in
our veins instead of blood had it been incumbent on us to be always and
everywhere unmoved to wrath."

"A neat little incident for our journals," observed Blount, "if only
Ivan Ogareff would let us know the contents of that letter."

Ivan Ogareff, when he had stanched the blood which was trickling
down his face, had broken the seal. He read and re-read the letter
deliberately, as if he was determined to discover everything it
contained.

Then having ordered that Michael, carefully bound and guarded, should
be carried on to Tomsk with the other prisoners, he took command of
the troops at Zabediero, and, amid the deafening noise of drums and
trumpets, he marched towards the town where the Emir awaited him.

CHAPTER IV THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY

TOMSK, founded in 1604, nearly in the heart of the Siberian provinces,
is one of the most important towns in Asiatic Russia. Tobolsk, situated
above the sixtieth parallel; Irkutsk, built beyond the hundredth
meridian--have seen Tomsk increase at their expense.

And yet Tomsk, as has been said, is not the capital of this important
province. It is at Omsk that the Governor-General of the province and
the official world reside. But Tomsk is the most considerable town of
that territory. The country being rich, the town is so likewise, for
it is in the center of fruitful mines. In the luxury of its houses, its
arrangements, and its equipages, it might rival the greatest European
capitals. It is a city of millionaires, enriched by the spade and
pickax, and though it has not the honor of being the residence of the
Czar's representative, it can boast of including in the first rank
of its notables the chief of the merchants of the town, the principal
grantees of the imperial government's mines.

But the millionaires were fled now, and except for the crouching poor,
the town stood empty to the hordes of Feofar-Khan. At four o'clock the
Emir made his entry into the square, greeted by a flourish of trumpets,
the rolling sound of the big drums, salvoes of artillery and musketry.

Feofar mounted his favorite horse, which carried on its head an aigrette
of diamonds. The Emir still wore his uniform. He was accompanied by
a numerous staff