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Alcide Jolivet, at this burst of anger, laughed as he had never laughed before. "But the poor devil is quite right!" he cried. "He is perfectly right, my dear fellow. It is not his fault if we did not know how to follow him!" Then drawing several copecks from his pocket, "Here my friend," said he, handing them to the iemschik; "take them. If you have not earned them, that is not your fault."

The iemschik leapt from his seat and seized the horses' heads, for terrible danger threatened the whole party. The tarantass was at a standstill at a turning of the road, down which swept the hurricane; it was absolutely necessary to hold the animals' heads to the wind, for if the carriage was taken broadside it must infallibly capsize and be dashed over the precipice.

Michael pressed her hand, and, turning the corner of the slope, disappeared in the darkness. "Your brother is wrong," said the iemschik. "He is right," replied Nadia simply. Meanwhile Strogoff strode rapidly on.

"Hold up, my pigeons!" cried the iemschik; it was his business to obey, not to question. Just then a distant noise was heard, shrill whistling through the atmosphere, so calm a minute before. By the light of a dazzling flash, almost immediately followed by a tremendous clap of thunder, Michael could see huge pines on a high peak, bending before the blast.

Suddenly, during a flash of lightning, one of these masses was seen crashing and rolling down the mountain towards the tarantass. The iemschik uttered a cry. Michael Strogoff in vain brought his whip down on the team, they refused to move. A few feet farther on, and the mass would pass behind them!

"Indeed it is, my dear fellow. You do not know how to look at the bright side of things." "How, pray, are we to go on?" asked Blount. "That is the easiest thing in the world," replied Alcide. "Go and harness yourself to what remains of our cart; I will take the reins, and call you my little pigeon, like a true iemschik, and you will trot off like a real post-horse." "Mr.

The rumbling of the thunder ceased for an instant, the terrible blast had swept past into the gorge below. "Will you go back?" said the iemschik. "No, we must go on! Once past this turning, we shall have the shelter of the slope." "But the horses won't move!" "Do as I do, and drag them on." "The storm will come back!" "Do you mean to obey?" "Do you order it?"

Michael listened attentively. The iemschik also listened, but shook his head, as though it was impossible to help. "They are travelers calling for aid," cried Nadia. "They can expect nothing," replied the iemschik. "Why not?" cried Michael. "Ought not we do for them what they would for us under similar circumstances?" "Surely you will not risk the carriage and horses!"

The two other horses seemed to know no other pace than the gallop, though they performed many an eccentric curvette as they went along. The iemschik, however, never touched them, only urging them on by startling cracks of his whip. But what epithets he lavished on them, including the names of all the saints in the calendar, when they behaved like docile and conscientious animals!

The man who drove the tarantass during the first stage was, like his horses, a Siberian, and no less shaggy than they; long hair, cut square on the forehead, hat with a turned-up brim, red belt, coat with crossed facings and buttons stamped with the imperial cipher. The iemschik, on coming up with his team, threw an inquisitive glance at the passengers of the tarantass.