on a high peak, bending before the blast. The wind was unchained,
but as yet it was the upper air alone which was disturbed.
Successive crashes showed that many of the trees had been unable
to resist the burst of the hurricane. An avalanche of shattered
trunks swept across the road and dashed over the precipice
on the left, two hundred feet in front of the tarantass.

The horses stopped short.

"Get up, my pretty doves!" cried the iemschik, adding the cracking
of his whip to the rumbling of the thunder.

Michael took Nadia's hand. "Are you asleep, sister?"

"No, brother."

"Be ready for anything; here comes the storm!"

"I am ready."

Michael Strogoff had only just time to draw the leathern curtains,
when the storm was upon them.

The iemschik leapt from his seat and seized the horses'
heads, for terrible danger threatened the whole party.

The tarantass was at a standstill at a turning of the road,
down which swept the hurricane; it was absolutely necessary
to hold the animals' heads to the wind, for if the carriage
was taken broadside it must infallibly capsize and be