The Iola register., 1902-02-07

This was not an inconvenience; rath-
er the contrary, for the fugitives would
then descend the river during the night,
and the darkness would favor their
arrival at Irkutsk.
At 4 o'clock In the afternoon the
mouth of the Angara was signaled by
the old mariner between the high gran
ite rocks of the coast. One could per-
ceive on the right bank the little port
of Livenltchnaia. its church, its few
houses built on the steep.
But there was grave circumstance.
The first floating ice ttat had como
from the east was already forming be-
tween the banks of the Angara and
hence descending toward Irkutsk.
However, their number could not as
yet be great enough to obstruct the
river nor the cold severe enough to
unite them into one mass.
The raft arrived at the little port and
stopped there for n short time. The
old mariner had decided to put into
port for an hour in order to make some
Indispensable repairs. The trunks, hav-
ING becnno loose. threntenPd To seDa-
rate from one another, and 1t was Of
great Importance to rebind them more
firmly together that they might resist
the current Of the Angara, which Is
very rapid.
The old sailor did not, therefore. eX-
pect any more fugltives at the port OF
Livenltchnaia, and yet at the moment
the raft was leaving the shore two
men. coming out of a deserted house,
ran with great haste to the bank.
Nadia, sitting at the back part Of the
raft, looked at them in listless man.
ner.
a cry was about to escape her. She
seized the hand Of Michael Strogoff,
who at that moment raised his head.
"What is the matter with you, Ma
dia?" he asked.
"Our two fellow travellers, Michael
that Frenchman and that Englishman
whom we met in the defiles of the Ural
mountains"
"Yes"
Michael Strogoff shuddered, for the
strict incognito from which he did not
wish to depart was in danger Of being
unveiled.
And in reality 1t was not any longer
Nicholas Korpanoff whom Alcide Joli-
vet and Harry Blount were about TO
see in him now, but the true Michael
| Strogoff the courier of the czar. The
! journalists had already met him twice
since their separation at the posthouse
of lchim-the first time at the camp of
Zabedeiro, when he cut with the blow of
the knout the face of Ivan Ogareff. the
second time at Tomsk, when he was
condemned by the emir. They knew
therefore what to think of him and his
true position as courier of the czar.
Michael Strogotf quickly took up his
part.
"Nadia," said he, "when that French
man and Englishman shall come on
board beg them to come up to me-"
They were indeed Harry Blount and
Alcide Jolivet, whom not chance, but
the force Of events, had conducted to
the port of Livenitchnala, just as they
had led Michael Strogoff.
The reader knows that after having
been present at the triumphal entry OF
the Tartars into Tomsk they had gone
away before the savage execution
which terminated the feast. They had
no doubt but their old fellow traveller
had been put to death, and they were
quite unaware that he had been only
made blind by order of the emir.
Then, having procured horses, they
had abandoned Tomsk that very night
with the fixed intention of dating hence
forth their articles from Russian camps
of eastern Siberia.