The boatmen spoke of horrible atrocities committed by the invaders--pillage, theft, incendiarism, murder.

Such was the system of Tartar warfare.
The people all fled before Feofar-Khan.

Michael Strogoff's great fear was lest, in the depopulation of the towns, he should be unable to obtain the means of transport.

He was therefore extremely anxious to reach Omsk.

Perhaps there they would get the start of the Tartar scouts, who were coming down the valley of the Irtych, and would find the road open to Irkutsk.
Just at the place where the tarantass crossed the river ended what is called, in military language, the "Ichim chain"-- a chain of towers, or little wooden forts, extending from the southern frontier of Siberia for a distance of nearly four hundred versts.