"You had learnt then--?"

"Look here, little father, as the Russians say," replied Alcide Jolivet,
"I'm a good fellow, and I don't wish to keep anything from you.
The Tartars, and Feofar-Khan at their head, have passed Semipolatinsk,
and are descending the Irtish. Do what you like with that!"

What! such important news, and Harry Blount had not known it;
and his rival, who had probably learned it from some inhabitant of Kasan,
had already transmitted it to Paris. The English paper was distanced!
Harry Blount, crossing his hands behind him, walked off and seated
himself in the stern without uttering a word.

About ten o'clock in the morning, the young Livonian, leaving her cabin,
appeared on deck. Michael Strogoff went forward and took her hand.
"Look, sister!" said he, leading her to the bows of the Caucasus.

The view was indeed well worth seeing. The Caucasus had reached
the confluence of the Volga and the Kama. There she would leave
the former river, after having descended it for nearly three
hundred miles, to ascend the latter for a full three hundred.

The Kama was here very wide, and its wooded banks lovely.
A few white sails enlivened the sparkling water.
The horizon was closed by a line of hills covered with aspens,
alders, and sometimes large oaks.

But these beauties of nature could not distract the thoughts
of the young Livonian even for an instant. She had left her hand