United States or Burundi ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"And that was why I questioned Pan-Chao regarding the dead mandarin." "I remember," I said; "and I could not quite understand the motive of your question. It is certain now that we have got a treasure in tow." "And I add," said the major, "that the Chinese government has done wisely in sending an escort of twenty well-armed men.
Thereupon Pan-Chao became animated, and although we understood nothing he said, we guessed that he was speaking of the courage of Kinko, of the sacrifice he had made for the safety of the travelers, and finally, as a supreme argument, he pleaded that his client had saved the imperial treasure. Useless eloquence?
We were occupied with declarations relative to the attack on the train, to the dead which the Chinese authorities were to bury, to the wounded who were to be left at Tcharkalyk, where they would be properly looked after. Pan-Chao told me it was a populous town, and I regret I was unable to visit it.
That was a proposal worth consideration, and we assembled to consider it, Major Noltitz, Pan-Chao, Fulk Ephrinell, Caterna, the clergyman, Baron Weissschnitzerdörfer, and a dozen others all who understood Russian. Faruskiar spoke as follows: "I have been looking at the portion of the line damaged by the band of Ki-Tsang. Most of the sleepers are still in place.
Major Noltitz and Pan-Chao had got themselves up in all due form for the solemnity. The major looked as serious as a surgeon who was going to cut off a leg. The Chinaman looked as gay as a Parisian at a village bridal. Doctor Tio-King and Cornaro, one carrying the other, were to be at this little festivity.
At this moment the carter, brought forward by the police, relates the affair to a good sort of fellow in spectacles, who shakes his head in anything but a hopeful way for the prisoner, who, even if he were as innocent as a new-born child, could not defend himself, inasmuch as he did not know Chinese. Then it is that Pan-Chao presents himself. The judge recognized him and smiled.
There I find Major Noltitz and the Caternas, and by a lucky chance young Pan-Chao, without Dr. Tio-King. Pan-Chao would like nothing better than to be our interpreter before the Chinese authorities. And then, before the weeping Zinca, I told my companions all about Kinko, how he had traveled, how I had made his acquaintance on the journey.
Pan-Chao told the story, and, as he understood Russian, the major and I took part in the discussion. Yes! There was a discussion. This unmistakable Chinaman did not hesitate to contend that Kinko's case was a most serious one. A fraud undertaken on such conditions, a fraud extending over six thousand kilometres, a fraud of a thousand francs on the Grand Transasiatic Company and its agents.
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.
The complaisant Pan-Chao offers to be my interpreter. The clerk tells us that the posts are all up again, and that messages can be sent through to Europe. At once I favor the Twentieth Century with the following telegram: "Sou-Tcheou, 25th May, 2:25 P.M.
Word Of The Day