four
o’clock in the evening
No incident took place during the night . Nadia remained in a sort of stupor , and Michael watched beside her ; sleep only overtook him at long intervals , and even then his brain did not rest . At break of day , the raft , delayed by a strong breeze , which counteracted the course of the current , was still forty versts from the mouth of the Angara . It seemed probable that the fugitives could not reach it before three or four o'clock in the evening . This did not trouble them ; on the contrary , for they would then descend the river during the night , and the darkness would also favor their entrance into Irkutsk . The only anxiety exhibited at times by the old boatman was concerning the formation of ice on the surface of the water . The night had been excessively cold ; pieces of ice could be seen drifting towards the West .