they have known it beforehand, and where do they
wish to go? Those are suspicious people, and it seems to me that to them
the government proclamation must be more useful than injurious."

But these reflections were completely dispelled by another which drove
every other thought out of Michael's mind. He forgot the Zingaris,
their suspicious words, the strange coincidence which resulted from the
proclamation. The remembrance of the young Livonian girl suddenly rushed
into his mind. "Poor child!" he thought to himself. "She cannot now
cross the frontier."

In truth the young girl was from Riga; she was Livonian, consequently
Russian, and now could not leave Russian territory! The permit which
had been given her before the new measures had been promulgated was no
longer available. All the routes to Siberia had just been pitilessly
closed to her, and, whatever the motive taking her to Irkutsk, she was
now forbidden to go there.

This thought greatly occupied Michael Strogoff. He said to himself,
vaguely at first, that, without neglecting anything of what was due to
his important mission, it would perhaps be possible for him to be of
some use to this brave girl; and this idea pleased him. Knowing how
serious were the dangers which he, an energetic and vigorous man, would
have personally to encounter, he could not conceal from himself how
infinitely greater they would prove to a young unprotected girl. As she
was going to Irkutsk, she would be obliged to follow the same road as
himself, she would have to pass through the bands of invaders, as he was
about to attempt doing himself. If, moreover, she had at her
disposal only the money necessary for a journey taken under ordinary
circumstances, how could she manage to accomplish it under conditions
which made it not only perilous but expensive?

"Well," said he, "if she takes the route to Perm, it is nearly
impossible but that I shall fall in with her. Then, I will watch over
her without her suspecting it; and as she appears to me as anxious as
myself to reach Irkutsk, she will cause me no delay."

But one thought leads to another. Michael Strogoff had till now thought
only of doing a kind action; but now another idea flashed into his
brain; the question presented itself under quite a new aspect.

"The fact is," said he to himself, "that I have much more need of her
than she can have of me. Her presence will be useful in drawing off
suspicion from me. A man traveling alon