My mother died at Riga scarcely a month ago, and I am going to Irkutsk to rejoin my father and share his exile." "I, too, am going to Irkutsk," answered Michael, "and I shall thank Heaven if it enables me to give Nadia Fedor safe and sound into her father's hands." "Thank you, brother," replied Nadia.
Michael Strogoff then added that he had obtained a special podorojna for Siberia, and that the Russian authorities could in no way hinder his progress.
Nadia asked nothing more.

She saw in this fortunate meeting with Michael a means only of accelerating her journey to her father.
"I had," said she, "a permit which authorized me to go to Irkutsk, but the new order annulled that; and but for you, brother, I should have been unable to leave the town, in which, without doubt, I should have perished." "And dared you, alone, Nadia," said Michael, "attempt to cross the steppes of Siberia ?" "The Tartar invasion was not known when I left Riga.

It was only at Moscow that I learnt the news." "And despite it, you continued your journey ?" "It was my duty." The words showed the character of the brave girl.
She then spoke of her father, Wassili Fedor.

He was a much-esteemed physician at Riga.

But his connection with some secret society having been asserted, he received orders to start for Irkutsk.