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.
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.
We replied to this Chinesing Chinee that it was all very true, but that
the damage had been inconsiderable, that if the defrauder had not been
in the train he could not have saved it at the risk of his life, and at
the same time he could not have saved the lives of the passengers.
Well, would you believe it? This living China figure gave us to
understand that from a certain point of view it would have been better
to regret the deaths of a hundred victims--
Yes! We knew that! Perish the colonies and all the passengers rather
than a principle!
In short, we got nothing.
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