It was nearly midnight.  Weariness invited me to sleep, and yet, like a good reporter, I must sleep with one eye and one ear open.

I fall into that sort of slumber provoked by the regular trepidations of a train on the road, mingled with ear-splitting whistles and the grind of the brakes as the speed is slowed, and tumultuous roars as passing trains are met with, besides the names of the stations shouted out during the short stoppages, and the banging of the doors which are opened or shut with metallic sonority.

In this way I heard the shouts of Geran, Varvara, Oudjarry, Kiourdamir, Klourdane, then Karasoul, Navagi.  I sat up, but as I no longer occupied the corner from which I had been so cavalierly evicted, it was impossible for me to look through the window.

And then I began to ask what is hidden beneath this mass of veils and wraps and petticoats, which has usurped my place.  Is this lady going to be my companion all the way to the terminus of the Grand Transasiatic?  Shall I exchange a sympathetic salute with her in the streets of Pekin?  And from her my thoughts wander to my companion who is snoring in the corner in a way that would make all the ventilators of Strong, Bulbul & Co. quite jealous.  And what is it these big people make?  Is it iron bridges, or locomotives, or armor plates, or steam boilers, or mining pumps?  From what my American told me, I might find a rival to Creusot or Cokerill or Essen in this formidable establishment in the United States of America.  At least unless he has been taking a rise out of me, for he does not seem to be “green,” as they say in his country, which means to say that he does not look very much like an idiot, this Ephrinell!

And yet it seems that I must gradually have fallen sound asleep.  Withdrawn from exterior influences, I did not even hear the stentorian respiration of the Yankee.  The train arrived at Aliat, and stayed there ten minutes without my being aware of it.  I am sorry for it, for Aliat is a little seaport, and I should like to have had a first glimpse of the Caspian, and of the countries ravaged by Peter the Great.  Two columns of the historico-fantastic might have been made out of that, with the aid of Bouillet and Larousse.

“Baku!  Baku!”

The word repeated as the train stopped awoke me.

It was seven o’clock in the morning.

CHAPTER III.

The boat did not start until three o’clock in the afternoon.  Those of my companions who intended to cross the Caspian hurried off to the harbor; it being necessary to engage a cabin, or to mark one’s place in the steamer’s saloon.

Ephrinell precipitately left me with these words: 

“I have not an instant to lose.  I must see about the transport of my baggage.”

“Have you much?”

“Forty-two cases.”

“Forty-two cases!” I exclaimed.

“And I am sorry I have not double as many.  Allow me—­”