s draws you toward Irkutsk?"

"No, Nadia," replied Michael, gravely. "I should deceive you if I
allowed you to believe that it was so. I go where duty orders me to go.
As to taking you to Irkutsk, is it not you, Nadia, who are now taking me
there? Do I not see with your eyes; and is it not your hand that guides
me? Have you not repaid a hundred-fold the help which I was able to give
you at first? I do not know if fate will cease to go against us; but the
day on which you thank me for having placed you in your father's hands,
I in my turn will thank you for having led me to Irkutsk."

"Poor Michael!" answered Nadia, with emotion. "Do not speak so. That
does not answer me. Michael, why, now, are you in such haste to reach
Irkutsk?"

"Because I must be there before Ivan Ogareff," exclaimed Michael.

"Even now?"

"Even now, and I will be there, too!"

In uttering these words, Michael did not speak solely through hatred to
the traitor. Nadia understood that her companion had not told, or could
not tell, her all.

On the 15th of September, three days later, the two reached the village
of Kouitounskoe. The young girl suffered dreadfully. Her aching feet
could scarcely support her; but she fought, she struggled, against her
weariness, and her only thought was this: "Since he cannot see me, I
will go on till I drop."

There were no obstacles on this part of the journey, no danger either
since the departure of the Tartars, only much fatigue. For three days
it continued thus. It was plain that the third invading column was
advancing rapidly in the East; that could be seen by the ruins which
they left after them--the cold cinders and the already decomposing
corpses.

There was nothing to be seen in the West; the Emir's advance-guard had
not yet appeared. Michael began to consider the various reasons which
might have caused this delay. Was a sufficient force of Russians
directly menacing Tomsk or Krasnoiarsk? Did the third column, isolated
from the others, run a risk of being cut off? If this was the case, it
would be easy for the Grand Duke to defend Irkutsk, and any time gained
against an invasion was a step towards repulsing it. Michael
sometimes let his thoughts run on these hopes, but he soon saw their
improbability, and felt that the preservation of the Grand Duke depended
alone on him.

Nadia dragged herself along. Whatever might be her moral energy, her
physical strength would soon fail her. Michael knew it only