I will say to him: "My friend, trust to my discretion; I will not betray you.

Provisions?
I will bring them to you during the night.
Encouragements?
I will heap them on you as I will the refreshments.

Do not forget that Mademoiselle Zinca Klork, evidently the most lovely of Roumanians, is expecting you at Pekin, etc." Behold me then following him without appearing to do so.

Amid all this hurry to and fro he is in little danger of being noticed.

Neither Popof nor any of the company's servants would suspect him to be a swindler.
Is he going towards the gate to escape me?
No! He only wants to stretch his legs better than he can do in the van.
After an imprisonment which has lasted since he left Baku--that is to say, about sixty hours--he has earned ten minutes of freedom.
He is a man of middle height, lithe in his movements, and with a gliding kind of walk.