And most of them refused to
believe it.
"What!" said Popof. "The manager of the company who so courageously
drove off the bandits and killed their chief Ki-Tsang with his own
hand?"
Then I entered on the scene.
"The major is not mistaken. It was Faruskiar who laid this fine trap
for us."
And amid the general stupefaction I told them what I knew, and what
good fortune had enabled me to ascertain. I told them how I had
overheard the plan of Faruskiar and his Mongols, when it was too late
to stop it, but I was silent regarding the intervention of Kinko. The
moment had not come, and I would do him justice in due time.
To my words there succeeded a chorus of maledictions and menaces.
What! This seigneur Faruskiar, this superb Mongol, this functionary we
had seen at work! No! It was impossible.
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.
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