to the same work of observation in another compartment. Neither
of them had seen each other that day at the Moscow station, and they
were each ignorant that the other had set out to visit the scene of the
war. Harry Blount, speaking little, but listening much, had not inspired
his companions with the suspicions which Alcide Jolivet had aroused.
He was not taken for a spy, and therefore his neighbors, without
constraint, gossiped in his presence, allowing themselves even to go
farther than their natural caution would in most cases have allowed
them. The correspondent of the Daily Telegraph had thus an opportunity
of observing how much recent events preoccupied the merchants of
Nijni-Novgorod, and to what a degree the commerce with Central Asia was
threatened in its transit.

He therefore noted in his book this perfectly correct observation, "My
fellow-travelers extremely anxious. Nothing is talked of but war, and
they speak of it, with a freedom which is astonishing, as having broken
out between the Volga and the Vistula."

The readers of the Daily Telegraph would not fail to be as well informed
as Alcide Jolivet's "cousin." But as Harry Blount, seated at the left
of the train, only saw one part of the country, which was hilly, without
giving himself the trouble of looking at the right side, which was
composed of wide plains, he added, with British assurance, "Country
mountainous between Moscow and Wladimir."

It was evident that the Russian government purposed taking severe
measures to guard against any serious eventualities even in the interior
of the empire. The rebel lion had not crossed the Siberian frontier, but
evil influences might be feared in the Volga provinces, so near to the
country of the Kirghiz.

The police had as yet found no traces of Ivan Ogareff. It was not known
whether the traitor, calling in the foreigner to avenge his personal
rancor, had rejoined Feofar-Khan, or whether he was endeavoring to
foment a revolt in the government of Nijni-Novgorod, which at this time
of year contained a population of such diverse elements. Perhaps among
the Persians, Armenians, or Kalmucks, who flocked to the great market,
he had agents, instructed to provoke a rising in the interior. All this
was possible, especially in such a country as Russia. In fact, this
vast empire, 4,000,000 square miles in extent, does not possess the
homogeneousness of the states of Western Europe. The Russian territory
in Europe and Asi