Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 25, 2025
We were talking about the safety of the Grand Transasiatic across Central Asia, and Pan Chao had said that the road was not so safe as it might be beyond the Turkestan frontier, as, in fact, Major Noltitz had told me. I was then led to ask if he had ever heard of the famous Ki Tsang before his departure from Europe. "Often," he said, "for Ki Tsang was then in the Yunnan provinces.
We had already left the station when the Caternas presented themselves. "Are you going for a run round the town, Monsieur Claudius?" asked the actor, with a comprehensive gesture to show the vast surroundings of Samarkand. "Such is our intention." "Will Major Noltitz and you allow me to join you?" "How so?" "With Madame Caterna, for I do nothing without her."
About thirty of the passengers have left the table for the deck. I hope the fresh air will do them good. We are now only a dozen in the dining room, including the captain, with whom Major Noltitz is quietly conversing. Ephrinell and Miss Bluett seem to be thoroughly accustomed to these inevitable incidents of navigation.
Then Pan-Chao, Major Noltitz, Caterna, and I went off to the company's offices at the station. The manager was in his office, and we were admitted. He was a Chinese in every acceptation of the word, and capable of every administrative Chinesery a functionary who functioned in a way that would have moved his colleagues in old Europe to envy.
"But he ought to be a personage of consideration, to be treated with the honor he gets." "That is possible," said Pan Chao; "but we have so many personages of consideration in the Celestial Empire." "And so, this mandarin, Yen Lou?" "I never heard him mentioned." Why did Major Noltitz ask the Chinaman this question? What was he thinking about? Kokhan, two hours to stop. It is night.
I was completely dumfounded at this ultra-Britannic rudeness, while Major Noltitz could not restrain a loud outburst of laughter. Ah! If I should see this gentleman again. But never did I see again Sir Francis Trevellyan of Trevellyan Hall, Trevellyanshire. Half an hour afterwards we are installed at the Hotel of Ten Thousand Dreams. There we are served with a dinner in Chinese style.
The verification of the papers of young Pan Chao and Doctor Tio-King gave rise to no difficulty, and on leaving they exchanged "ten thousand good mornings" with the more amiable of the Chinese representatives. When it came to the turn of Major Noltitz, a slight incident occurred. Sir Francis Trevellyan, who came to the table at the same moment, did not seem inclined to give way.
I remember the fears of Kinko, and it is with regard to him that the trembling is to be done, if the examination of the travelers extends to their packages and luggage. Before we reached Kachgar, Major Noltitz said to me: "Do not imagine that Chinese Turkestan differs very much from Russian Turkestan. We are not in the land of pagodas, junks, flower boats, yamens, hongs and porcelain towers.
But they had to give in to the evidence. I had seen; I had heard; I affirmed that Faruskiar was the author of this catastrophe in which all our train might have perished, was the most consummate bandit who had ever disgraced Central Asia! "You see, Monsieur Bombarnac," said Major Noltitz, "that I was not mistaken in my first suspicion."
"That is comforting, Major Noltitz. And as to the section between the frontier and Pekin?" "That is another matter," replied the major. "Over the Pamir plateau, up to Kachgar, the road is carefully guarded; but beyond that, the Grand Transasiatic is under Chinese control, and I have not much confidence in that." "Are the stations very far from each other?" I asked. "Very far, sometimes."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking