"Good," said the clerk. And with the greatest coolness
in the world he began to telegraph the following dispatch:
"Daily Telegraph, London.
"From Kolyvan, Government of Omsk, Siberia, 6th August.
"Engagement between Russian and Tartar troops."
The reading was in a distinct voice, so that Michael heard
all that the English correspondent was sending to his paper.
"Russians repulsed with great loss. Tartars entered Kolyvan to-day."
These words ended the dispatch.
"My turn now," cried Alcide Jolivet, anxious to send off his dispatch,
addressed to his cousin.
But that was not Blount's idea, who did not intend to give
up the wicket, but have it in his power to send off the news
just as the events occurred. He would therefore not make way
for his companion.
"But you have finished!" exclaimed Jolivet.
"I have not finished," returned Harry Blount quietly.
And he proceeded to write some sentences, which he handed in to the clerk,
who read out in his calm voice: "John Gilpin was a citizen of credit
and renown; a train-band captain eke was he of famous London town."
Harry Blount was telegraphing some verses learned in his childhood,
in order to employ the time, and not give up his place to his rival.
It would perhaps cost his paper some thousands of roubles, but it
would be the first informed. France could wait.
Jolivet's fury may be imagined, though under any other
circumstances he would have thought it fair warfare.
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