nine o’clock in the morning
Michael left the great square of Nijni-Novgorod , where the tumult produced by the carrying out of the prescribed measures had now reached its height . Recriminations from the banished strangers , shouts from the agents and Cossacks who were using them so brutally , together made an indescribable uproar . The girl for whom he searched could not be there . It was now nine o'clock in the morning . The steamboat did not start till twelve . Michael Strogoff had therefore nearly two hours to employ in searching for her whom he wished to make his traveling companion . He crossed the Volga again and hunted through the quarters on the other side , where the crowd was much less considerable .