During this trying period Alcide Jolivet and Michael Strogoff worked hard,
each in the portions of the enclosure in which they found themselves.
Healthy and vigorous, they suffered less than so many others,
and could better endure the hardships to which they were exposed.
By their advice, and the assistance they rendered, they were of the
greatest possible use to their suffering and despairing fellow-captives.
Was this state of things to last? Would Feofar-Khan, satisfied
with his first success, wait some time before marching
on Irkutsk? Such, it was to be feared, would be the case.
But it was not so. The event so much wished for by Jolivet
and Blount, so much dreaded by Michael, occurred on the morning
of the 12th of August.
On that day the trumpets sounded, the drums beat, the cannon roared.
A huge cloud of dust swept along the road from Kolyvan. Ivan Ogareff,
followed by several thousand men, made his entry into the Tartar camp.
CHAPTER II CORRESPONDENTS IN TROUBLE
IVAN OGAREFF was bringing up the main body of the army of
the Emir. The cavalry and infantry now under him had formed part
of the column which had taken Omsk. Ogareff, not having been
able to reduce the high town, in which, it must be remembered,
the governor and garrison had sought refuge, had decided to pass on,
not wishing to delay operations which ought to lead to the conquest
of Eastern Siberia. He therefore left a garrison in Omsk, and,
reinforcing himself en route with the conquerors of Kolyvan,
joined Feofar's army.
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