The Iola register., 1902-02-14
TheCourier
OF theCzar
BY JULES VERNE


In a low voice. "you must not know
who am nor what came to do in ST.
beria. i beg you to respect my secret.
do you promise meT'
NOn my honor" answered Alcide Joli-
vet
"On my faith as gentleman" added
Harry Blount
"Very well, gentlemen"
. "Can we be of any use to your ask
ed Harry Blount. would you wish
ms to help you to accomplish your
fask2"
Il prefer to act alone" said Michael
Etrogoff.
''But those scoundrels have burned
cut your sight" said Alcide Jolivet.
81 have Nadia, and her eyes suffice"
Half an hour later the raft, after
having left the little port of Livenltch-
naia, was fairly in the river. 1t was
o'clock in the evening. Night was fast
coming on. 1t would be very dark and
very cold also, for the temperature was
already below zero.
Alcide Jolivet and Harry Blount, al
though they had promised Michael
Strogoff to keep his secret, yet did not
leave his side. They spoke in a low
voice, and the blind man, putting what
he already knew to what they now told
him, was enabled to form an exact idea
of the state of affairs.
He was certain that the Tartars were
actually investing Irkutsk and that the
three columns had already formed a
junction. One could not therefore doubt
that the emir and Ivan Ogaref were
before the capital.
But why that haste to arrive there
OF the courier of the czar, now that the
emperor's letter could no longer be re-
mitted by him to the grand duke, and
he did not even know its contents? AL
eide Jolivet and Harry Blount could
no more understand than could Nadia.
Besides, they had not spoken of the
past up to the moment when Alcide
Jolivet thought it his duty to say to
Michael Strogoff:
1--WE almost owe you some excuses
for not having shaken hands with you
before our separation at the posthouse
OF Ichim."
''No; you had a right to believe me a
coward"
Anyhow" added Alcide Jolivet, ''you
have splendidly whipped that villain,
and he will carry the marks Of 1t long
time"
mo, not long time" simply answer
ed Michael Strogof.
In half an hour after the departure
from Livenitchnaia Alcide Jolivet and
Harry Blount had heard all the details
OF the cruel trials through which Mi
chael Strogoff and his companion had
successfully passed. They could not
but openly admire an energy which the
deyotedness of the young girl alone
had been able to equal. And OF Mi
chael Strogoff they had formed the
very same opinion which had been so
well expressed by the czar at Moscow
I'm truth. he is a manw
At o'clock at night, as the aspect
of the sky had forewarned them, an ex-
cessive darkness enveioped all the
country. The moon, being new, would
not rise above the horizon. From the
middle of the river the banks were visi-
BILE. The cliffs at net great height
were blended with those heavy clouds
which. they displaced with difficulty.
At intervals breeze would come from
the east and seem to expire in that mar
row valley of the Angara.
The old mariner, lying down on the
fore part of the raft near his men, oc-
cuped himself altogether in turning
aside from the Ice blocks, maneuver
which he executed without making any
noise.
This drifting of the ice, after all, was
a favorable circumstance as long as 1t
did not oppose an insurmountable OBJ
stacle in the passage of the raft; for
indeed this apparatus alone on the free
waters OF the river would have run the
risk of being perceived even through
the thick shade, whereas it was now
confounded with these moving masses
of all sizes and all shapes, and the din
produced by the grating of the blocks
drowned all other suspicious noise.
There was a very keen frost. The
fugitives suffered dreadfully from it,
not having any other shelter but some
branches of the birch tree. They press
ed close to each other in order 10 better
support the low temperature, which
during that night had reached 10 de-
grees below zero
Michael Strogoff and Nadia, lying
down at the back part of the raft, en-
dured without complaint this addition
al suffering. For man who was reck-
Oning soon to attain his end Michael
Strogoff seemed singularly calm. Be-
sides, In the most grave situations his
energy had never abandoned him. Al
ready he looked forward to the moment
when at last it would be permitted him
to think of his mother, of Nadia, OF
himself. He only feared one last and
evil chance. 1t was lest the raft should
be absolutely stopped by barrier OF
thick ice before having reached Ir'
kutsk. He did not think of anything