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The place where we had been stopped was halfway between Tcharkalyk and Tchertchen, the only two stations from which we could procure help. Unfortunately they were no longer in telegraphic communication, Ki-Tsang having knocked down the posts at the same time as he lifted the rails. Hence a discussion as to what was the best thing to be done, which was not of long duration.
"The manager of the company who so courageously drove off the bandits and killed their chief Ki-Tsang with his own hand?" Then I entered on the scene. "The major is not mistaken. It was Faruskiar who laid this fine trap for us." And amid the general stupefaction I told them what I knew, and what good fortune had enabled me to ascertain.
Formerly, it seems, it was a haunt of robbers and bandits, and it is a pity that the renowned Ki-Tsang did not live in those days. Perhaps he would have become a Genghis Khan? Major Noltitz told me of a Turkoman saying to the following effect: "If you meet a Mervian and a viper, begin by killing the Mervian and leave the viper till afterwards."
During our crossing of Russian Turkestan he had maintained his incognito like a great personage in a foreign country; but now on the Chinese railways he resumed the rank which belonged to him. And I in a joke, it is true had permitted myself to identify him with the pirate Ki-Tsang. And Major Noltitz, who had spent his time suspecting him!
Taking into account the delay occasioned by the Ki-Tsang affair that will make thirteen days from the start from Uzun Ada. Thirteen days! Heavens! And there are the thirteen numbers in my notebook! Supposing I were superstitious? We remained three hours at Tcharkalyk. Most of the passengers did not leave their beds.
Having for some time been a terror to Yunnan, he was being too closely pursued, and has now moved into the northern provinces. His presence has ever been reported in that part of Mongolia served by the Grand Transasiatic." "Well, he ought to furnish a few paragraphs." "The paragraphs Ki-Tsang will furnish you with may cost you too dearly."
We were lost, we should have perished in the most horrible of deaths if Kinko had not been there! I went back on to the line, my heart heavy, my eyes full of tears. Assuredly Faruskiar's scheme in the execution of which he had executed his rival Ki-Tsang had been cleverly contrived in utilizing this branch line leading to the unfinished viaduct.
From Kothan to Lan Teheou the trains will have two thousand kilometres to traverse through the desert, and the safety of the line is not as great as it might be across the Gobi." "All the more so, major, as the redoubtable Ki-Tsang has been reported in the northern provinces." "Quite so, and a haul of fifteen millions is worth having by a bandit chief."
Faruskiar stands over him, towering above him. Suddenly he rises in a last effort, his arm threatens his adversary, he looks at him. A last thrust of the kandijar is driven into his heart. Faruskiar returns, and in Russian, with perfect calmness, remarks: "Ki-Tsang is dead! So perish all who bear weapons against the Son of Heaven!"
The fact is that Fulk Ephrinell, on the one part, and Horatia Bluett, on the other part, seemed to have forgotten that had it not been for the attack of Ki-Tsang and his band they would now have been united in the gentle bonds of matrimony. But we were all too tired.
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