HALF an hour afterwards, Michael and Nadia had left Tomsk.
Many others of the prisoners were that night able to escape from the Tartars, for officers and soldiers, all more or less intoxicated, had unconsciously relaxed the vigilant guard which they had hitherto maintained. Nadia, after having been carried off with the other prisoners, had been able to escape and return to the square, at the moment when Michael was led before the Emir. There, mingling with the crowd, she had witnessed the terrible scene. Not a cry escaped her when the scorching blade passed before her companion's eyes.
She kept, by her strength of will, mute and motionless.
A providential inspiration bade her restrain herself and retain her liberty that she might lead Marfa's son to that goal which he had sworn to reach. Her heart for an instant ceased to beat when the aged Siberian woman fell senseless to the ground, but one thought restored her to her former energy.
"I will be the blind man's dog," said she.
On Ogareff's departure, Nadia had concealed herself in the shade.
She had waited till the crowd left the square. Michael, abandoned as a wretched being from whom nothing was to be feared, was alone.
She saw him draw himself towards his mother, bend over her, kiss her forehead, then rise and grope his way in flight.
A few instants later, she and he, hand in hand, had descended the steep slope, when, after having followed the high banks of the Tom to the furthest extremity of the town, they happily found a breach in the inclosure.
The road to Irkutsk was the only one which penetrated towards the east.
It could not be mistaken. It was possible that on the morrow, after some hours of carousal, the scouts of the Emir, once more scattering over the steppes, might cut off all communication.
It was of the greatest importance therefore to get in advance of them.
How could Nadia bear the fatigues of that night, from the l6th to the 17th of August? How could she have found strength for so long a stage? How could her feet, bleeding under that forced march, have carried her thither? It is almost incomprehensible.
But it is none the less true that on the next morning, twelve hours after their departure from Tomsk, Michael and she reached the town of Semilowskoe, after a journey of thirty-five miles.
Michael had not uttered a single word. It was not Nadia who held his hand, it was he who held that of his companion during the whole of that night; but, thanks to that trembling little hand which guided him, he had walked at his ordinary pace.
Semilowskoe was almost entirely abandoned. The inhabitants had fled.
Not more than two or three houses were still occupied.
All that the town contained, useful or precious, had been carried off in wagons. However, Nadia was obliged to make a halt of a few hours.
They both required food and rest.
The young girl led her companion to the extremity of the town.
There they found an empty house, the door wide open.
An old rickety wooden bench stood in the middle of the room, near the high stove which is to be found in all Siberian houses.
They silently seated themselves.
Nadia gazed in her companion's face as she had never before gazed.
There was more than gratitude, more than pity, in that look.
Could Michael have seen her, he would have read in that sweet desolate gaze a world of devotion and tenderness.
The eyelids of the blind man, made red by the heated blade, fell half over his eyes. The pupils seemed to be singularly enlarged.
The rich blue of the iris was darker than formerly. The eyelashes and eyebrows were partly burnt, but in appearance, at least, the old penetrating look appeared to have undergone no change.
If he could no longer see, if his blindness was complete, it was because the sensibility of the retina and optic nerve was radically destroyed by the fierce heat of the steel.
Then Michael stretched out his hands.
"Are you there, Nadia?" he asked.
"Yes," replied the young girl; "I am close to you, and I will not go away from you, Michael."At his name, pronounced by Nadia for the first time, a thrill passed through Michael's frame. He perceived that his companion knew all, who he was.
"Nadia," replied he, "we must separate!"
"We separate? How so, Michael?"
"I must not be an obstacle to your journey! Your father is waiting for you at Irkutsk! You must rejoin your father!""My father would curse me, Michael, were I to abandon you now, after all you have done for me!""Nadia, Nadia," replied Michael, "you should think only of your father!""Michael," replied Nadia, "you have more need of me than my father.
Do you mean to give up going to Irkutsk?""Never!" cried Michael, in a tone which plainly showed that none of his energy was gone.
"But you have not the letter!"
"That letter of which Ivan Ogareff robbed me! Well! I shall manage without it, Nadia! They have treated me as a spy!
I will act as a spy! I will go and repeat at Irkutsk all Ihave seen, all I have heard; I swear it by Heaven above!
The traitor shall meet me one day face to face! But I must arrive at Irkutsk before him.""And yet you speak of our separating, Michael?""Nadia, they have taken everything from me!""I have some roubles still, and my eyes! I can see for you, Michael;and I will lead you thither, where you could not go alone!""And how shall we go?"
"On foot."
"And how shall we live?"
"By begging."
"Let us start, Nadia."
"Come, Michael."
The two young people no longer kept the names "brother" and "sister."In their common misfortune, they felt still closer united.
They left the house after an hour's repose. Nadia had procured in the town some morsels of "tchornekhleb," a sort of barley bread, and a little mead, called "meod" in Russia. This had cost her nothing, for she had already begun her plan of begging.
The bread and mead had in some degree appeased Michael's hunger and thirst. Nadia gave him the lion's share of this scanty meal.
He ate the pieces of bread his companion gave him, drank from the gourd she held to his lips.
"Are you eating, Nadia?" he asked several times.