The night promised to be dark and very cold also, for the temperature
was already below zero.
Alcide and Blount, though they had promised to keep Michael's secret,
did not leave him. They talked in a low voice, and the
blind man, adding what they told him to what he already knew,
was able to form an exact idea of the state of things.
It was certain that the Tartars had actually invested Irkutsk,
and that the three columns had effected a junction.
There was no doubt that the Emir and Ivan Ogareff were
before the capital.
But why did the Czar's courier exhibit such haste to get there,
now that the Imperial letter could no longer be given by him to
the Grand Duke, and when he did not even know the contents of it?
Alcide Jolivet and Blount could not understand it any more than
Nadia had done.
No one spoke of the past, except when Jolivet thought it his duty
to say to Michael, "We owe you some apology for not shaking hands
with you when we separated at Ichim."
"No, you had reason to think me a coward!"
"At any rate," added the Frenchman, "you knouted the face of that
villain finely, and he will carry the mark of it for a long time!"
"No, not a long time!" replied Michael quietly.
Half an hour after leaving Livenitchnaia, Blount and his companion
were acquainted with the cruel trials through which Michael and his
companion had successively passed. They could not but heartily admire
his energy, which was only equaled by the young girl's devotion.
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