Dripread - Book

Passepartout was now plunged into absorbing reverie. Up to his arrival at Bombay, he had entertained hopes that their journey would end there; but now that they were plainly whirling across India at full speedy a sudden change had come over the spirit of his dreams. His old vagabond nature returned to him ; the fantastic ideas of

his youth once more took possession of him. He came to regard his master's project as intended in good earnest, beheved in the reaHty of the bet, and therefore in the tour of the world, and the necessity of making it without fail within the designated period. Already he began to worry about possible delays, and accidents which might happen on the way. He recognized himself as being personally interested in the wager, and trembled at the thought that he might have been the means of losing it by his unpardonable folly of the night before. Being much less cool-headed than Mr. Fogg, he was much more restless, counting and recounting the days passed over, uttering maledictions when the train stopped, and accusing it of sluggishness, and mentally blaming Mr. Fogg for not having bribed the engineer. The worthy fellow was ignorant that, while it was possible by such means to hasten the rate of a steamer, it could not be done on the railway.

The train entered the defiles of the Sutpour Mountains, which separate the Khandeish from Bundelcund, towards evening. The next day Sir Francis Cromarty asked Passepartout what time it was; to which, on consulting his watch, he replied that it was three in the morning. This famous timepiece, always regulated on the Greenwich meridian, which was now some seventy-seven degrees westward, was at least four hours slow. Sir Francis corrected Passepartout's time, whereupon the latter made the

AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS. y^

same remark that he had done to Fix ; and upon the general insisting that the watch should be regulated in each new meridian, since he was constantly going eastward, that is in the face of the sun, and therefore the days were shorter by four minutes for each degree gone over. Passepartout obstinately refused to alter his watch, which he kept at London time. It was an innocent delusion which could harm no one.

The train stopped, at eight o'clock, in the midst of a glade some fifteen miles beyond Rothal, wh ere there were several bungalows and workmen's cabins. The conductor, passing along the carriages, shouted, " Passengers will get out here!"

Phileas Fogg looked at Sir Francis Cromarty for an explanation ; but the general could not tell what meant a halt in the midst of this forest of dates and acacias.

Passepartout, not less surprised, rushed out and speedily returned, crying, " Monsieur, no more railway !"

" What do you mean V asked Sir Francis.

" I mean to say that the train isn't going on."

The general at once stepped out, while Phileas Fogg calmly followed him, and they proceeded together to the conductor.

*' Where are we 1 " asked Sir Francis.

"At the hamlet of Kholby."

" Certainly. The railway isn't finished."

''What! not finished.?"

" No. There's still a matter of fifty miles to be laid from here to Allahabad, where the line begins again."

" But the papers announced the opening of the railway throughout."

" What would you have, ofiicer } The papers were mistaken."

" Yet you sell tickets from Bombay to Calcutta," retorted Sir Francis, who was growing warm.

" No doubt," replied the conductor ; " but the passengers know that they must provide means of transportation for themselves from Kholby to Allahabad."

Sir Francis was furious. Passepartout would willingly have knocked the conductor down^ and did not dare to look at his master.

" Sir Francis," said Mr. Fogg, quietly, '' we will, if you please, look about for some means of conveyance to Allahabad."

" Mr. Fogg, this is a delay greatly to your disadvantage."

" No, Sir Francis ; it was foreseen."

" What! You knew that the way?"

" Not at all; but I knew that some obstacle or other would sooner or later arise on my route. Nothing, therefore, is lost. I have two days which I have already gained to sacrifice. A steamer leaves Calcutta for Hong Kong at

noon, on the 25th. This is the 22nd, and we shall reach Calcutta in time."

There was nothing to say to so confident a response.

Around the world in eighty days