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A week had not passed before Touman, whom, it seems, I resemble and who was one of the Secret Service agents in Kiew, was assassinated in the train that was taking him to St. Petersburg. The assassination was kept a secret. I received all his papers and I took his place with you. I was doomed beforehand and I asked nothing better, so long as I might last until after the execution of Trebassof.
You speak as if it belonged to you, as if you could dispose of it." Rouletabille laid his hand on Koupriane's arm. "Perhaps that's so," said he. "Would you like me to tell you one thing, Monsieur Rouletabille? It is that General Trebassof's life, after what has just escaped the lips of this Touman, who is not Touman, isn't worth any more than than yours if you remain here.
The others much preferred to roll away the time watching in the villa or in front of the lodge, where vodka and Crimean wine, kwass and pivo, kirsch and tchi, never ran short. That agent's name is Touman." "Touman! Impossible! He is one of the best agents from Kiew. He was recommended by Gounsovski." Rouletabille chuckled. "Yes, yes, yes," grumbled the Chief of Police.
He ended his account as a man dressed in a maroon coat with false astrakhan was introduced. It was the same man Rouletabille had met in General Trebassof's drawing-room and who spoke French. Two gendarmes were behind him. The door had been closed. Koupriane turned toward the man in the coat. "Touman," he said, "I want to talk to you. You are a traitor, and I have proof.
Touman, between the two guards who held him, and who sometimes received blows on the rebound that were not intended for them, never uttered a complaint. Outside the invectives of Koupriane there was heard only the swish of the cords and the cries of Rouletabille, who continued to protest that it was abominable, and called the Chief of Police a savage. Finally the savage stopped.
Eight hundred men, under the Count de Touman, were posted at Uzes; two battalions of the regiment of Hainault, under Julien, at Anduze; while Broglie, with a strong body of dragoons and militia, commanded the passes at St. Ambrose. These troops occupied, as it were, the three sides of a triangle, in the centre of which Cavalier was known to be in hiding in the woods of Bouquet.
Seizing a whip which hung at the waist of the guards he struck Touman a blow across the shoulders that drew blood. Touman, mad with the outrage and the pain, shouted, "Yes, it is true! I brag of it!" Koupriane did not restrain his rage. He showered the unhappy man with blows, having thrown Rouletabille to the end of the room when he tried to interfere.
"And why not?" demanded the Chief of rolice, while, upon a sign from him, they took away the false Touman. "Because it is I who denounced him." "What a reason! And what would you like me to do?" "Guard him for me; for me alone, do you understand?" "In exchange for what?" "In exchange for the life of General Trebassof, if I must put it that way." "Eh? The life of General Trebassof!
You can confess to me, and I will give you a thousand roubles and you can take yourself off to be hanged somewhere else." The man's eyes shrank, but he recovered himself quickly. He replied in Russian. "Speak French. I order it," commanded Koupriane. "I answer, Your Excellency," said Touman firmly, "that I don't know what Your Excellency means."
Touman, across whose shoulders they had thrown his coat and who lay now across a chair, found strength to look up and say: "It is true. You can't do me as much harm as I have done you, whether you think so or not. All the harm that can be done me by you and yours is already accomplished. My name is not Touman, but Matiev. Listen. I had a son that was the light of my eyes.
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