Michael noticed that of the two reporters Blount alone had rejoined
the steamer. Was Alcide Jolivet about to miss his passage?

But just as the ropes were being cast off, Jolivet appeared,
tearing along. The steamer was already sheering off, the gangway
had been drawn onto the quay, but Alcide Jolivet would not stick
at such a little thing as that, so, with a bound like a harlequin,
he alighted on the deck of the Caucasus almost in his rival's arms.

"I thought the Caucasus was going without you," said the latter.

"Bah!" answered Jolivet, "I should soon have caught you up again,
by chartering a boat at my cousin's expense, or by traveling post
at twenty copecks a verst, and on horseback. What could I do?
It was so long a way from the quay to the telegraph office."

"Have you been to the telegraph office?" asked Harry Blount,
biting his lips.

"That's exactly where I have been!" answered Jolivet, with his
most amiable smile.

"And is it still working to Kolyvan?"

"That I don't know, but I can assure you, for instance,
that it is working from Kasan to Paris."

"You sent a dispatch to your cousin?"

"With enthusiasm."