Why do they continue to look out over the immense
desert? Before their eyes there stretches not the cultivated steppe of
the Lob Nor region, but the Gobi, which is barren, desolate and gloomy,
according to the reports of Grjimailo, Blanc and Martin. It may be
asked why these people are keeping such an obstinate lookout.
"If my presentiments do not deceive me," said Major Noltitz, "there is
some reason for it."
What does he mean? But the bell of the tender, the tender bell, begins
its joyous appeal. Nine o'clock; it is time to go into the dining car.
Caterna comes near me, and I hear him singing:
"It is the turret bell,
Which sud-denly is sounding."
While Madame Caterna replies to the trio of the _Dame Blanche_ by the
refrain of the _Dragons de Villars_:
"And it sounds, sounds, sounds,
It sounds and resounds--"
The passengers move in a procession, the four witnesses first, then the
guests from the end of the village--I mean of the train; Chinese,
Turkomans, Tartars, men and women, all curious to assist at the
ceremony. The four Mongols remain on the last gangway near the treasure
which the Chinese soldiers do not leave for an instant.
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