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Updated: June 4, 2025
I must content myself with having seen all that with the major's eyes. The train starts at two o'clock in the morning, after having been joined by a few passengers who Popof tells me are Turkomans. I will have a look at them when daylight comes. For ten minutes I remained on the car platform and watched the heights of the Persian frontier on the extreme limit of the horizon.
Above me the clouds are racing across with great rapidity, and a few constellations glitter through their rifts, Cassiopeia, the Little Bear, in the north, and in the zenith Vega of Lyra. At length absolute silence reigns on the platforms. Popof, who is in charge of the train, has his eyes closed in sleep. Assured of safety I cross the gangway and am in front of the baggage van.
Those millions are known to be in the train, and they will tempt people to attack us. And an attack, even if repulsed, will mean delay, and delay I will not submit to! No, sir, I will not!" "No one will attack us," replied Popof. "No one will dream of doing it!" "And how do you know that? how do you know that?" "Be calm, pray."
Has Popof obtained from the mutes who are on guard the name of this high personage? Yes, at last! And hardly are we within the station than he runs up to me, saying: "I know the name." "And it is?" "Yen Lou, the great mandarin Yen Lou of Pekin." "Thank you, Popof." I rush to the telegraph office, and from there I send a telegram to the Twentieth Century. "Merv, 16th May, 7 p.m.
There is a name I must know as soon as possible, that of the mandarin returning to China in the form of a mortuary parcel. With a little ingenuity Popof may manage to ascertain it from one of the Persians in charge of his Excellency. If it would only be that of some grand functionary, the Pao-Wang, or the Ko-Wang, or the viceroy of the two Kiangs, the Prince King in person!
Going a hundred yards down the line I could find no trace of him which was not to be wondered at. At first we looked on at the disaster in silence; but eventually conversation began. "It is only too evident," said one of the passengers, "that our driver and stoker have perished in the explosion." "Poor fellows!" said Popof.
Before three o'clock the engine from Tai-Youan ought to be here. I am ready to start." "So am I," said Popof! "I think several of us ought to go. Who knows if we may not meet Faruskiar and his Mongols on the road?" "You are right, Popof," said Major Noltitz, "and we should be armed." This was only prudent, for the bandits who ought to be on their way to the Tjon viaduct could not be very far off.
No, it was the time for defending, and defending one's self courageously. The Chinese officer has placed his men around the treasure van. They are twenty in number, and the rest of the passengers, not counting the women, amount to thirty. Popof distributes the weapons which are carried in case of attack.
In twelve minutes, so Popof says, we shall pass the junction with the Nanking branch. This branch is only completed for five or six kilometres, and leads to the viaduct over the Tjon valley. This viaduct is a great work I have the details from Pan-Chao and the engineers have as yet only got in the piers, which rise for a hundred feet above the ground.
When our train ran through the little stations that it honors only with a whistle, he could tell me if this one or that one had been the scene of any incident of the war. As a Frenchman I am justified in questioning him about the Russian expedition across Turkestan, and I have no doubt that my fellow passenger will be pleased to gratify me. He is the only one I can really trust besides Popof.
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