The silence would have been complete but for the grindings of the wheels of the tarantass over the road, the creaking of the axles, the snorting of the horses, and the clattering of their iron hoofs among the pebbles, sparks flying out on every side.
The road was perfectly deserted.

The tarantass encountered neither pedestrians nor horsemen, nor a vehicle of any description, in the narrow defiles of the Ural, on this threatening night.

Not even the fire of a charcoal-burner was visible in the woods, not an encampment of miners near the mines, not a hut among the brushwood.
Under these peculiar circumstances it might have been allowable to postpone the journey till the morning.

Michael Strogoff, however, had not hesitated, he had no right to stop, but then--and it began to cause him some anxiety--what possible reason could those travelers in the telga ahead have for being so imprudent?
Michael remained thus on the look-out for some time.

About eleven o'clock lightning began to blaze continuously in the sky.