These two officers wore helmets and half coats-of-mail; little trumpets fastened to their saddle-bows were the distinctive signs of their rank.
The pendja-baschi had been obliged to let his men rest, fatigued with a long stage.

He and the second officer, smoking "beng," the leaf which forms the base of the "has-chisch," strolled up and down the wood, so that Michael Strogoff without being seen, could catch and understand their conversation, which was spoken in the Tartar language.
Michael's attention was singularly excited by their very first words.

It was of him they were speaking.
"This courier cannot be much in advance of us," said the pendja-baschi; "and, on the other hand, it is absolutely impossible that he can have followed any other route than that of the Baraba." "Who knows if he has left Omsk ?" replied the deh-baschi.

"Perhaps he is still hidden in the town." "That is to be wished, certainly.

Colonel Ogareff would have no fear then that the dispatches he bears should ever reach their destination." "They say that he is a native, a Siberian," resumed the deh-baschi.