Pan Chao and the doctor amused me for a time, but they are not equal to it now.

The actor and the actress are of no use without opportunity.

Kinko, Kinko himself, on whom I had built such hopes, has passed the frontier without difficulty, he will reach Pekin, he will marry Zinca Klork.

Decidedly there is a want of excitement.

I cannot get anything out of the corpse of Yen Lou! and the readers of the _Twentieth Century_ who looked to me for something sensational and thrilling.
Must I have recourse to the German baron?
No! he is merely ridiculous, stupidly ridiculous, and he has no interest for me.
I return to my idea: I want a hero, and up to the present no hero has appeared on the scene.
Evidently the moment has come to enter into more intimate relations with Faruskiar.