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Updated: June 5, 2025
"M. Jolivet," he asked, "do you think that our last dispatches have been able to pass the Russian frontier?" "Why not?" answered Alcide. "By this time you may be sure that my beloved cousin knows all about the affair at Kolyvan." "How many copies does your cousin work off of her dispatches?" asked Blount, for the first time putting his question direct to his companion.
He accordingly ran on towards this house, still about half a verst distant. As he approached, he could see that it was a telegraph office. Two wires left it in westerly and easterly directions, and a third went towards Kolyvan.
According to the latest news obtained by the Czar's courier, Kolyvan could not be yet in the hands of the invaders. The Tartar troops, divided into two columns, had marched to the left on Omsk, to the right on Tomsk, neglecting the intermediate country.
"Listen," said he to Marfa, "your son is here, and you shall immediately point him out to me." "No." "All these men, taken at Omsk and Kolyvan, will defile before you; and if you do not show me Michael Strogoff, you shall receive as many blows of the knout as men shall have passed before you."
Michael Strogoff's plan was simply this to reach Kolyvan before the arrival of the Usbeck horsemen, who would ascend the other bank of the Obi to the ferry. There he would procure clothes and a horse, and resume the road to Irkutsk across the southern steppe. It was now three o'clock in the morning. The neighborhood of Kolyvan was very still, and appeared to have been totally abandoned.
Michael stood aside in the shadow, and without being seen himself he could see and hear all that was going on. He would now hear interesting news, and would find out whether or not he could enter Kolyvan. Blount, having distanced his companion, took possession of the wicket, whilst Alcide Jolivet, contrary to his usual habit, stamped with impatience. "Ten copecks a word," said the clerk.
It was evident that Russians and Tartars were fighting in the streets of the town. Was this a time to seek refuge there? Would he not run a risk of being taken prisoner? Should he succeed in escaping from Kolyvan, as he had escaped from Omsk? He hesitated and stopped a moment. Would it not be better to try, even on foot, to reach some small town, and there procure a horse at any price?
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