But if the small towns of Ikoulskoe and Karguinsk, which he
passed on the next day, were comparatively quiet, owing to
their position in the Baraba, was it not to be dreaded that,
upon the right banks of the Obi, Michael Strogoff would have much
more to fear from man? It was probable. However, should it
become necessary, he would not hesitate to abandon the beaten
path to Irkutsk. To journey then across the steppe he would,
no doubt, run the risk of finding himself without supplies.
There would be, in fact, no longer a well-marked road.
Still, there must be no hesitation.
Finally, towards half past three in the afternoon, Michael Strogoff
left the last depressions of the Baraba, and the dry and hard soil
of Siberia rang out once more beneath his horse's hoofs.
He had left Moscow on the 15th of July. Therefore on this day,
the 5th of August, including more than seventy hours lost on the banks
of the Irtych, twenty days had gone by since his departure.
One thousand miles still separated him from Irkutsk.
CHAPTER XVI A FINAL EFFORT
MICHAEL'S fear of meeting the Tartars in the plains beyond
the Baraba was by no means ungrounded. The fields, trodden down
by horses' hoofs, afforded but too clear evidence that their
hordes had passed that way; the same, indeed, might be said
of these barbarians as of the Turks: "Where the Turk goes,
no grass grows."
Michael saw at once that in traversing this country the greatest
caution was necessary.
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