half past three in the afternoon
To journey then across the steppe he would , no doubt , run the risk of finding himself without supplies . There would be , in fact , no longer a well-marked road . Still , there must be no hesitation . Finally , towards half past three in the afternoon , Michael Strogoff left the last depressions of the Baraba , and the dry and hard soil of Siberia rang out once more beneath his horse 's hoofs . He had left Moscow on the 15th of July . Therefore on this day , the 5th of August , including more than seventy hours lost on the banks of the Irtych , twenty days had gone by since his departure . One thousand miles still separated him from Irkutsk .