Page:Kéraban the Inflexible Part 1 (Jules Verne).djvu/161

Rh outside; and, certainly, they had reached a point where serious consequences might be expected to ensue, when Ahmet came in. Bruno and Nizib, attracted by the uproar, followed him. All three remained standing on the threshold.

"Look here," exclaimed Ahmet, laughing loudly. "My uncle is smoking M. Van Mitten's pipe, and M. Van Mitten is smoking uncle Kéraban's!"

Nizib and Bruno confirmed the assertion in chorus.

In fact, when they picked up their pipes, the disputants had each seized the wrong one; and so, without perceiving the exchange, the disputants had respectively asserted the virtues of their favourite tobacco; Kéraban all the while smoking Latakia, and Van Mitten, tombéki.

They could not help laughing, and finally they shook hands like friends whose good feeling no dispute could disturb.

"The horses are harnessed," said Ahmet; "we have only to get into the chaise."

"Let us go, then," said Kéraban.

Van Mitten and he then handed the narghilés to their valets, and the whole party were soon seated in their travelling carriage. But, as he got in, Kéraban could not help saying in a low tone to his friend,—

"Now that you have tasted it, will you not confess that tombéki is far superior to Latakia?"

"I willingly confess as much," said the Dutchman, who did not wish to get into another discussion.

"Thank you, my friend," replied Kéraban, who was much moved by this concession, "that is an avowal which I will never forget."

Then the pair cemented, by a vigorous grasp of the hand, the truce which had lately been proclaimed between them, and which ought not to be broken. The chaise was urged rapidly along the coast road, and at eight o'clock in the evening the frontier of Abkasia was reached. The travellers halted here for relays, and slept soundly until the next morning.