Rejtő, Jenő: The three musketeers in Africa; Q 19045

31 companies approached the engineers who had been sent to the place to survey the terrain. Pitman at first a

11owed himself to be bribed, and little by little took over the whole swindle. Officers and engineers who didn't play ball or were otherwise in his way disappeared one by one. An engineer of a bankrupt railway-constructions company put in a very low-price bid to those building the Belgian Congo railway, and this was accepted. From then on, all material arriving for the Frenc

h Congo railway construction was passed 011 to the Belgian side, several hundred kilometres on, and incredibly high, mountainous bribes were pocketed for this by Pitman, who paid out hefty handouts to his cronies. A minute portion of the material was used to erect a "camouflage" railway construction — paper-thin cement foundations, and makeshift station buildings, tunnels, etc. that look all right from the air. Whenever an inspection party arrived, all luxury facilities were dismantled and hidden in time, the Africans sent home, and the prisoners put to work. The cleanliness of the place earned Flurien-Pitman his promotion to captain. The crowning glory arrives for the three musketeers — as well as that brave old soldier, Sgt Potrien /who has at last won a 'Pour le Merits"/: they are brought to Paris — to an audience with the President of the Republic in the