Dripread - Book

"All included," returned Phileas Fogg, continuing to play despite the discussion.

" But suppose the Hindoos or Indians pull up the rails," replied Stuart; " suppose they stop the trains, pillage the luggage-vans, and scalp the passengers!"

"All included," calmdy retorted Fogg; adding, as he threw down the cards, " Two trumps."

Stuart, whose turn it was to deal, gathered them up, and went on : " You are right theoretically, Mr. Fogg, but practically?"

*' Practically also, Mr. Stuart."

" I'd like to see you do it in eighty days."

c 2

" It depends on you. Shall we go ?"

" Heaven preserve me ! But I would wager four thousand pounds that such a journey, made under these conditions, is impossible."

"Quite possible, on the contrary," returned Mr. Fogg.

"Well, make it, then!"

" The journey round the world in eighty days }''

"Yes."

" I should like nothing better."

"When.?"

"At once. Only I warn you that I shall do it at your expense."

"It's absurd!" cried Stuart, who was beginning to be annoyed at the persistency of his friend. " Come, let's go on with the game."

" Deal over again, then," said Phileas Fogg. " There's a false deal."

Stuart took up the pack with a feverish hand; then suddenly put them down again.

"Well, Mr. Fogg," said he, "it shall be so: I will wager the four thousand on it."

" Calm yourself, my dear Stuart," said Fallentin. " It's only a joke."

" When I say I'll wager," returned Stuart, " I mean it."

"All right," said Mr. Fogg; and, turning to the others,

A POOK MENDICANT.

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WELL, ilE. rOGG," SAID HE, " IT SHALL BE SO : I WILL WAGEE

�4000 ON IT! !"

[Page 20.

he continued, '' I have a deposit of twenty thousand at Baring's which I will willingly risk upon it."

" Twenty thousand pounds!" cried Sullivan. "Twenty thousand pounds, which you would lose by a single accidental delay!"

" The unforeseen does not exist," quietly replied Phileas Fogg.

'* But, Mr. Fogg, eighty days are only the estimate of the least possible time in which the journey can be made."

"A well-used minimum suffices for everything."

" But, in order not to exceed it, you must jump mathe-m.atically from the trains upon the steamers, and from the steamers upon the trains again.'''

" I will jump?mathematically."

"You are joking."

"A true Englishman doesn't joke when he is talking about so serious a thing as a wager," replied Phileas Fogg, solemnly. " I will bet twenty thousand pounds against any one who wishes, that I will make the tour of the world in eighty days or less ; in nineteen hundred and twenty hours, or a hundred and fifteen thousand two hundred minutes. Do you accept .^"

"We accept," replied Messrs. Stuart, Fallentin, Sullivan, Flanagan, and Ralph, after consulting each other.

" Good," said Mr. Fogg. " The train leaves for Dover at a quarter before nine. I will take it."

''This very evening?" asked Stuart.

"This very evening," returned Phlleas Fogg. He took out and consulted a pocket ahnanac, and added, "As today Is Wednesday, the second of October, I shall be due in London, in this very room of the Reform Club, on Saturday, the twenty-first of December, at a quarter before nine p.m.; or else the twenty thousand pounds, now deposited in my name at Baring's, will belong to you, in fact and in right, gentlemen. Here is a check for the am.ount."

A memorandum of the wager was at once drawn up and signed by the six parties, during which Phlleas Fogg preserved a stoical composure. He certainly did not bet to win, and had only staked the twenty thousand pounds, half of his fortune, because he foresaw that he might have to expend the other half to carry out this difficult, not to say unattainable, project. As for his antagonists, they seemed much agitated ; not so much by the value of their stake, as because they had some scruples about betting under conditions so difficult to their friend.

Around the world in eighty days