The coast is quickly reached eastward or westward, and harbors of refuge are not numerous on either the Asiatic or the European side.
There are a hundred passengers on board the _Astara_--a large number of them Caucasians trading with Turkestan, and who will be with us all the way to the eastern provinces of the Celestial Empire.
For some years now the Transcaspian has been running between Uzun Ada and the Chinese frontier.

Even between this part and Samarkand it has no less than sixty-three stations; and it is in this section of the line that most of the passengers will alight.

I need not worry about them, and I will lose no time in studying them.

Suppose one of them proves interesting, I may pump him and peg away at him, and just at the critical moment he will get out.
No! All my attention I must devote to those who are going through with me.

I have already secured Ephrinell, and perhaps that charming Englishwoman, who seems to me to be going to Pekin.