The Special Correspondent · Chapter
XXIV explained
The train travels through China, passing King-Tcheou and Si-Ngan, and encounters a thick fog that obscures the landscape.
What happens
The train travels through China, passing King-Tcheou and Si-Ngan, and encounters a thick fog that obscures the landscape. Claudius visits Kinko in the baggage van late at night, but overhears Faruskiar and Ghangir plotting to divert the train onto the unfinished Nanking branch line toward the Tjon viaduct, which is under construction and ends in an abyss. Realizing the danger, Claudius alerts Kinko, who climbs onto the engine and deliberately causes a boiler explosion to stop the train just short of the viaduct, saving the passengers.
Themes in this chapter
Danger and Heroism
Kinko's selfless act of causing a boiler explosion to stop the train from plunging into the abyss exemplifies heroism in the face of mortal danger.
Travel and Adventure
The journey through China, including foggy landscapes and the threat of a railway catastrophe, underscores the perils and excitement of travel.
Commerce and Enterprise
The imperial treasure carried in the van and Faruskiar's plot to steal it highlight themes of greed and enterprise.
Characters to notice
- Claudius Bombarnac
Narrator and reporter; overhears Faruskiar's plot and helps Kinko avert disaster.
- Kinko
Hidden in a crate; heroically climbs onto the engine and causes an explosion to stop the train.
- Faruskiar
Revealed as a scoundrel; plots with Ghangir to divert the train for the imperial treasure.
- Ghangir
Accomplice of Faruskiar; participates in the plot to switch the train onto the Nanking branch.
- Popof
Train employee; asleep during the crisis but later awakens after the explosion.
- Major Noltitz
Passenger; previously suspected Faruskiar, and his suspicions are confirmed.
- Pan-Chao
Provided details about the Tjon viaduct earlier in the chapter.
- Monsieur Caterna
Passenger; exits the train after the explosion.
Key passages
“Of this immense artificial frontier built between Mongolia and China, there remain only the blocks of granite and red quartzite which served as its base, its terrace of bricks with the parapets of unequal heights, a few old cannons eaten into with rust and hidden under a thick veil of lichens, and then the square towers with their ruined battlements.”
The Great Wall is now mostly ruins, with only granite blocks, brick terraces, rusted cannons, and crumbling towers remaining.
Describes the decayed state of the Great Wall as seen from the train.
“I fancy the Londoners might easily imagine that this town of Ho Nan was London, and perhaps Mrs. Ephrinell did so. Not because there was a Strand with its extraordinary traffic, nor a Thames with its prodigious movement of barges and steamboats. No! But because we were in a fog so thick that it was impossible to see either houses or pagodas.”
The fog at Ho Nan was so thick that it reminded Claudius of London's famous fogs, though the town lacked the city's landmarks.
A humorous comparison between Chinese fog and London fog, referencing Mrs. Ephrinell.
“Kinko, energetic and resolute, is as cool as a cucumber. But in vain he tries to move the regulator, to shut off the steam, to put on the brake. These valves and levers, what shall we do with them?”
Kinko remains calm and determined, but cannot control the runaway train's controls.
Highlights Kinko's composure under pressure and the mechanical challenge.
“And was that the only way—a desperate way—of stopping the train before it reached the viaduct? Kinko scattered the coal on to the fire bars. He turned on the greatest possible draught, the air roared across the furnace, the pressure goes up, up, amid the heaving of the motion, the bellowings of the boiler, the beating of the pistons.”
Kinko decides the only option is to cause a boiler explosion by overloading the fire, building up extreme pressure.
Describes the desperate measure to stop the train by blowing up the engine.
