Page:Kéraban the Inflexible Part 1 (Jules Verne).djvu/40

42 "I am very sorry to oppose Seigneur Kéraban," replied the chief of the police, "but he cannot pass without payment."

"He will pass without paying."

"No, indeed!"

"Yes, indeed!"

"Friend Kéraban," began Van Mitten, with the laudable intention of making this headstrong individual listen to reason, "my friend—"

"Let me alone, Van Mitten," retorted Kéraban angrily. "This tax is perfectly iniquitous, vexatious. It ought not to be submitted to. Never—no, never would the old régime have dared to levy a tax upon the caïques on the Bosphorus."

"Well, at any rate, the new régime have need of money," remarked the chief of police, "and they have not hesitated to do so."

"We shall see about that," said Kéraban.

"Guard," said the chief, addressing his men, "you will see that the new proclamation is carried out."

"Come, Van Mitten," said Kéraban, stamping his foot. "Bruno, Nizib, follow us."

"You must pay forty paras," remarked the chief of police quietly.

"Forty blows of the stick," replied Kéraban irritably. But scarcely had he advanced towards the steps where the caïque lay, when the guard surrounded him and his friends, and obliged them to retrace their steps.

"Let me pass!" he exclaimed, putting himself into a defiant attitude. "Do not dare to touch me, any of you, even with the tips of your fingers! I will pass, by Allah! and that too without the loss of a single para."

"Yes, you may pass, certainly; through the prison-door," replied the chief of police, who was getting rather excited also; "and you will pay a pretty fine before you come out again."

"I will go to Scutari."

"Not by crossing the Bosphorus; and as it is impossible to go any other way—"

"You think so, do you?" sneered Kéraban, who with