all quays on the arrival of a steam vessel. The Caucasus would stay
for an hour to renew her fuel. Michael did not even think of landing.
He was unwilling to leave the young Livonian girl alone on board,
as she had not yet reappeared on deck.

The two journalists had risen at dawn, as all good huntsmen should do.
They went on shore and mingled with the crowd, each keeping to his own
peculiar mode of proceeding; Harry Blount, sketching different types,
or noting some observation; Alcide Jolivet contenting himself with
asking questions, confiding in his memory, which never failed him.

There was a report along all the frontier that the insurrection and
invasion had reached considerable proportions. Communication between
Siberia and the empire was already extremely difficult.
All this Michael Strogoff heard from the new arrivals.
This information could not but cause him great uneasiness,
and increase his wish of being beyond the Ural Mountains,
so as to judge for himself of the truth of these rumors,
and enable him to guard against any possible contingency.
He was thinking of seeking more direct intelligence from some
native of Kasan, when his attention was suddenly diverted.

Among the passengers who were leaving the Caucasus, Michael
recognized the troop of Tsiganes who, the day before,
had appeared in the Nijni-Novgorod fair. There, on the deck
of the steamboat were the old Bohemian and the woman.
With them, and no doubt under their direction, landed about
twenty dancers and singers, from fifteen to twenty years of age,
wrapped in old cloaks, which covered their spangled dresses.
These dresses, just then glancing in the first rays of the sun,