I then return to my Roumanian. Ought I to attempt to see him to-night?
Undoubtedly; and not only to satisfy a very natural curiosity, but also
to calm his anxiety. In fact, knowing his secret is known to the person
who spoke to him through the panel of his case, suppose the idea
occurred to him to get out at one of the stations, give up his journey,
and abandon his attempt to rejoin Mademoiselle Zinca Klork, so as to
escape the company's pursuit? That is possible, after all, and my
intervention may have done the poor fellow harm--to say nothing of my
losing No. 11, one of the most valuable in my collection.

I am resolved to visit him before the coming dawn. But, in order to be
as careful as possible, I will wait until the train has passed
Tchardjoui, where it ought to arrive at twenty-seven past two in the
morning. There we shall stop a quarter of an hour before proceeding
towards the Amu-Daria. Popof will then retire to his den, and I shall
be able to slip into the van, without fear of being seen.

How long the hours appear! Several times I have almost fallen asleep,
and twice or thrice I have had to go out into the fresh air on the
platform.

The train enters Tchardjoui Station to the minute. It is an important
town of the Khanate of Bokhara, which the Transcaspian reached towards
the end of 1886, seventeen months after the first sleeper was laid. We
are not more than twelve versts from the Amu-Daria, and beyond that
river I shall enter on my adventure.

I have said that the stop at Tchardjoui ought to last a quarter of an
hour. A few travelers alight, for they have booked to this town which