Around the World in Eighty Days, Part 4: The Rescue

2:13:52 Chapter XIII: In which Passepartout proves once again that fortune smiles on the bold

2:13:52 Chapter Thirteen. In which Passepartout proves once again that fortune smiles on the bold.

2:14:00 The design was bold, bristling with difficulties, perhaps impracticable. Mr. Fogg was going to risk his life, or at the very least his liberty, and therefore the success of his plans; but he did not hesitate. He found, moreover, a resolute ally in Sir Francis Cromarty.

2:14:21 As for Passepartout, he was ready; they could do with him as they pleased. His master's idea filled him with enthusiasm. He sensed a heart, a soul, beneath that icy exterior.

2:14:35 He was beginning to love Phileas Fogg.

2:14:38 There remained the guide. Which side would he take in the affair? Might he not lean towards the rajah's people? Failing his help, they must at least make sure of his neutrality.

2:14:50 Sir Francis Cromarty put the question to him frankly.

2:14:54 the Parsee guide: Sir, I am a Parsee, and this woman is a Parsee. I am yours to command.

2:15:01 Phileas Fogg: Very good, guide.

2:15:03 the Parsee guide: But understand this: we risk not only our lives, but horrible tortures, if we are taken. So consider it well.

2:15:11 Phileas Fogg: Considered. I take it we shall have to wait for night before we act?

2:15:15 the Parsee guide: I think so too.

2:15:17 This worthy Indian then gave some details about the victim.

2:15:21 the Parsee guide: She is an Indian woman of celebrated beauty, of the Parsee people, the daughter of wealthy Bombay merchants. She received a thoroughly English education in that city, and her manners and her learning are remarkable. Her name is Aouda.

2:15:37 the Parsee guide: Left an orphan, she was married against her will to this old rajah of Bundelcund. Three months later she was a widow.

2:15:45 the Parsee guide: Knowing the fate that awaited her, she escaped, was caught again at once, and the rajah's relations, who have an interest in her death, doomed her to this torment... from which, it seems, she cannot escape.

2:15:58 This story could only root Mr. Fogg and his companions more firmly in their generous resolve. It was decided that the guide should take the elephant towards the pagoda of Pillaji and get as close to it as he could.

2:16:13 Half an hour later they halted in a copse, five hundred paces from the pagoda, which could not be seen; but the howling of the zealots could be heard distinctly.

2:16:24 Then they discussed the means of reaching the victim. The guide knew this pagoda of Pillaji, in which, he declared, the young woman was imprisoned.

2:16:33 Could they get in by one of the doors, once the whole band was sunk in drunken sleep, or would they have to make a hole in a wall? That could only be decided at the moment and on the spot.

2:16:46 But one thing was beyond doubt: the carrying-off must be done that very night, and not when, with the coming of day, the victim was led to her death. At that moment no human intervention could have saved her.

2:17:01 Mr. Fogg and his companions waited for night. As soon as darkness fell, at about six in the evening, they resolved to make a reconnaissance round the pagoda. The last cries of the fakirs were then dying away.

2:17:15 As was their custom, the crowd would by now be sunk in the heavy stupor of 'hang'—liquid opium mixed with an infusion of hemp—and it might perhaps be possible to slip between them as far as the temple.

2:17:30 The Parsee, leading Mr. Fogg, Sir Francis Cromarty and Passepartout, made his way noiselessly through the forest. After ten minutes of crawling under the branches, they came to the bank of a little river, and there, by the light of iron torches with resin burning at their tips, they saw a great heap of piled wood.

2:17:51 It was the pyre, made of precious sandalwood and already soaked with a perfumed oil. On the top of it lay the embalmed body of the rajah, which was to be burned at the same time as his widow.

2:18:05 A hundred paces from the pyre rose the pagoda, whose minarets pierced the tree-tops in the darkness.

2:18:12 the Parsee guide: Come!

2:18:13 And, redoubling his caution, with his companions behind him, he slipped silently through the tall grass.

2:18:21 The silence was now broken only by the murmur of the wind in the branches.

2:18:26 Soon the guide stopped at the edge of a clearing. A few resin torches lit the place. The ground was strewn with groups of sleepers, heavy with intoxication.

2:18:38 It looked like a battlefield covered with the dead. Men, women, children, all lay jumbled together. Here and there a few drunken sleepers were still groaning.

2:18:51 In the background, among the mass of trees, the temple of Pillaji rose dimly. But, to the guide's great disappointment, the rajahs' guards, lit by smoky torches, were keeping watch at the doors and pacing up and down with drawn sabres. It could be supposed that inside the priests were keeping watch as well.

2:19:13 The Parsee went no farther. He had seen that it was impossible to force the entrance of the temple, and he led his companions back.

2:19:23 Phileas Fogg and Sir Francis Cromarty had understood, as he had, that nothing could be attempted on that side.

2:19:31 They stopped and talked together in low voices.

2:19:34 Sir Francis Cromarty: Let us wait. It is only eight o'clock, and it is possible that these guards may give way to sleep as well.

2:19:41 the Parsee guide: That is possible, indeed.

2:19:43 So Phileas Fogg and his companions stretched themselves out at the foot of a tree and waited.

2:19:51 How long the time seemed to them! Now and then the guide left them and went to keep an eye on the edge of the wood. The rajah's guards were still on watch by the light of the torches, and a dim light filtered through the windows of the pagoda.

2:20:07 They waited in this way until midnight. The situation did not change. The same watch outside. It was clear that they could not count on the guards dozing off.

2:20:19 They had probably been spared the intoxication of 'hang'. They would have to act otherwise, then, and get in through an opening made in the walls of the pagoda. There remained the question whether the priests were watching over their victim as carefully as the soldiers at the door of the temple.

2:20:37 After a last consultation, the guide said he was ready to go. Mr. Fogg, Sir Francis and Passepartout followed him. They made a fairly long detour, so as to reach the pagoda from the rear.

2:20:51 At about half-past twelve they reached the foot of the walls without having met anyone. No watch had been set on that side; but it is only fair to say that there were no windows or doors there whatever.

2:21:05 The night was dark. The moon, then in her last quarter, had barely risen above a horizon heaped with heavy clouds. The height of the trees deepened the darkness still further.

2:21:20 But it was not enough to have reached the foot of the walls; an opening still had to be made in them. For this operation Phileas Fogg and his companions had nothing whatever but their pocket-knives.

2:21:33 Very fortunately, the walls of the temple were made of a mixture of brick and wood which could not be hard to pierce. Once the first brick was out, the rest would come easily.

2:21:44 They set to work, making as little noise as possible. The Parsee on one side and Passepartout on the other worked at loosening the bricks, so as to make an opening two feet wide.

2:21:58 The work was getting on, when a cry was heard inside the temple, and almost at once other cries answered it from outside.

2:22:06 Passepartout and the guide broke off their work. Had they been surprised? Had the alarm been given? The most ordinary prudence bade them withdraw—which they did, together with Phileas Fogg and Sir Francis Cromarty.

2:22:19 They crouched once more under the cover of the wood, waiting for the alarm, if alarm it was, to die down, and ready, in that case, to resume their operation.

2:22:30 But—a fatal mischance—guards appeared at the rear of the pagoda and posted themselves there so as to prevent any approach.

2:22:40 It would be hard to describe the disappointment of these four men, checked in the middle of their work. Now that they could no longer reach the victim, how were they to save her?

2:22:51 Sir Francis Cromarty was gnawing his knuckles. Passepartout was beside himself, and the guide had some trouble in restraining him.

2:23:00 The impassive Fogg waited without showing his feelings.

2:23:04 Sir Francis Cromarty: Is there nothing left for us but to go away?

2:23:07 the Parsee guide: Nothing left but to go away.

2:23:10 Phileas Fogg: Wait. I need only be at Allahabad tomorrow before noon.

2:23:15 Sir Francis Cromarty: But what do you hope for? In a few hours it will be daylight, and…

2:23:19 Phileas Fogg: The chance that escapes us now may come back at the last moment.

2:23:24 The brigadier-general would have liked to be able to read what was in Phileas Fogg's eyes.

2:23:29 What, then, was this cool Englishman counting on? Did he mean, at the moment of the sacrifice, to rush at the young woman and snatch her openly from her executioners?

2:23:41 That would have been madness, and how could one suppose that this man was as mad as that? Nevertheless Sir Francis Cromarty agreed to wait for the outcome of this terrible scene.

2:23:53 The guide, however, did not leave his companions where they had taken refuge, but led them back towards the front of the clearing. There, sheltered by a clump of trees, they could watch the sleeping groups.

2:24:07 Meanwhile Passepartout, perched on the lowest branches of a tree, was turning over an idea which had first flashed through his mind like lightning and had ended by lodging itself firmly in his brain.

2:24:21 He had begun by saying to himself,

2:24:23 Jean Passepartout: What madness!

2:24:25 and now he kept repeating,

2:24:27 Jean Passepartout: Why not, after all? It's a chance, perhaps the only one, and with a crowd so far gone!…

2:24:34 At any rate, Passepartout put his thought into no other words; but before long he was slipping, with the suppleness of a snake, along the low branches of the tree, whose ends bent down towards the ground.

2:24:48 The hours went by, and soon a few less sombre shades announced the approach of day. The darkness, however, was still deep.

2:25:00 This was the moment. Something like a resurrection passed through the slumbering crowd. The groups stirred into life.

2:25:10 Tom-toms sounded. Chants and cries burst out again. The hour had come at which the unhappy woman was to die.

2:25:19 And indeed the doors of the pagoda opened. A brighter light streamed out from within. Mr. Fogg and Sir Francis Cromarty could see the victim, brightly lit, being dragged outside by two priests.

2:25:34 It even seemed to them that, shaking off the numbness of the drug by a last instinct of self-preservation, the unhappy woman was trying to escape from her executioners.

2:25:45 Sir Francis Cromarty's heart leapt; with a convulsive movement he seized Phileas Fogg's hand, and felt that the hand held an open knife.

2:25:54 At that moment the crowd began to move. The young woman had sunk back into the torpor brought on by the fumes of hemp. She passed between the fakirs, who escorted her with their religious clamour.

2:26:07 Phileas Fogg and his companions, mingling with the last ranks of the crowd, followed her.

2:26:13 Two minutes later they reached the bank of the river and stopped less than fifty paces from the pyre, on which lay the body of the rajah. In the half-darkness they saw the victim, utterly inert, stretched out beside the corpse of her husband.

2:26:31 Then a torch was brought near, and the oil-soaked wood at once burst into flame.

2:26:37 At that moment Sir Francis Cromarty and the guide held back Phileas Fogg, who, in a moment of generous madness, was rushing towards the pyre…

2:26:45 But Phileas Fogg had already thrust them aside, when the scene suddenly changed. A cry of terror went up. The whole crowd, terror-stricken, flung itself to the ground.

2:26:57 Was the old rajah not dead, then, since he could be seen suddenly rising up like a phantom, lifting the young woman in his arms, and coming down from the pyre amid swirls of smoke that gave him a ghostly appearance?

2:27:11 The fakirs, the guards, the priests, seized with sudden terror, lay there with their faces to the ground, not daring to lift their eyes and look upon such a prodigy!

2:27:23 The senseless victim passed by in the vigorous arms that carried her, and seemed no burden to them at all. Mr. Fogg and Sir Francis Cromarty had remained standing. The Parsee had bowed his head, and Passepartout, no doubt, was no less stupefied!…

2:27:42 In this way the risen man came up to the spot where Mr. Fogg and Sir Francis Cromarty were standing, and there, in a curt voice:

2:27:51 Jean Passepartout: Let's be off!…

2:27:53 It was Passepartout himself who had slipped up to the pyre in the midst of the thick smoke!

2:27:58 It was Passepartout who, taking advantage of the darkness, still deep, had snatched the young woman from death! It was Passepartout who, playing his part with daring good fortune, had walked through the midst of the general terror!

2:28:18 A moment later all four had vanished into the wood, and the elephant was carrying them off at a rapid trot.

2:28:26 But shouts and clamour, and even a bullet that went through Phileas Fogg's hat, told them that the trick had been discovered.

2:28:33 Indeed, the body of the old rajah could now be seen on the blazing pyre. The priests, recovering from their fright, had understood that an abduction had just taken place.

2:28:44 They had at once rushed into the forest. The guards had followed them.

2:28:49 A volley had been fired; but the abductors were fleeing fast, and in a few moments they were out of range of bullets and arrows.

2:28:58 Chapter XIV: In which Phileas Fogg goes down the whole of the admirable valley of the Ganges without so much as thinking of looking at it

2:29:02 Chapter Fourteen. In which Phileas Fogg goes down the whole of the admirable valley of the Ganges without so much as thinking of looking at it.

2:29:13 The daring abduction had succeeded. An hour later Passepartout was still laughing over his success. Sir Francis Cromarty had shaken the intrepid fellow by the hand.

2:29:25 His master had said to him, 'Good', which, in that gentleman's mouth, amounted to high approval. To which Passepartout had replied that all the honour of the affair belonged to his master.

2:29:38 For his own part, he had only had a 'funny' idea; and he laughed to think that for a few moments he, Passepartout, one-time gymnast, ex-sergeant of firemen, had been the widower of a charming woman—

2:29:52 an old, embalmed rajah!

2:29:55 As for the young Indian woman, she had had no awareness of what had happened. Wrapped in the travelling rugs, she lay in one of the howdahs.

2:30:05 Meanwhile the elephant, guided with extreme sureness by the Parsee, was running swiftly through the still dark forest. An hour after leaving the pagoda of Pillaji, it struck out across an immense plain.

2:30:19 At seven o'clock they halted. The young woman was still in a state of complete prostration. The guide made her swallow a few mouthfuls of water and brandy, but the stupefying influence that overpowered her was bound to last for some time yet.

2:30:36 Sir Francis Cromarty, who knew the effects of the intoxication produced by inhaling the fumes of hemp, had no anxiety on her account.

2:30:46 But if the young Indian woman's recovery was not in question in the brigadier-general's mind, he was less easy about the future. He did not hesitate to tell Phileas Fogg that if Mrs. Aouda remained in India, she would inevitably fall back into the hands of her executioners.

2:31:04 Her persecutors were to be found all over the peninsula, and, in spite of the English police, they would certainly manage to recapture their victim, were it at Madras, at Bombay or at Calcutta.

2:31:17 And Sir Francis Cromarty cited, in support of what he said, a case of the same kind that had happened recently. In his opinion the young woman would be truly safe only once she had left India.

2:31:30 Phileas Fogg replied that he would bear these observations in mind and would consider what was to be done.

2:31:38 Towards ten o'clock the guide announced the station at Allahabad. There the interrupted line of the railway began again, and its trains cover the distance from Allahabad to Calcutta in less than a day and a night.

2:31:51 Phileas Fogg would therefore arrive in time to catch a steamer which did not sail for Hong Kong until the following day, the twenty-fifth of October, at noon.

2:32:02 The young woman was installed in a room at the station. Passepartout was sent to buy her various articles of dress—a gown, a shawl, furs and so forth, whatever he could find. His master gave him unlimited credit.

2:32:17 Passepartout set off at once and scoured the streets of the town. Allahabad is the City of God, one of the most venerated cities in India, because it is built at the meeting of two sacred rivers, the Ganges and the Jumna, whose waters draw pilgrims from the whole peninsula.

2:32:36 It is well known, besides, that according to the legends of the Ramayana the Ganges has its source in heaven, whence, by the grace of Brahma, it comes down to earth.

2:32:48 While doing his shopping, Passepartout had soon seen the town, once defended by a magnificent fort which has since become a state prison. No more trade, no more industry in this city, once so full of industry and commerce.

2:33:05 Passepartout, who looked in vain for a draper's shop, as though he had been in Regent Street a few steps from Farmer and Company, found the things he needed only at a second-hand dealer's, a crusty old man who made difficulties over everything:

2:33:20 a dress of tartan cloth, a large cloak, and a magnificent otter-skin pelisse, for which he did not hesitate to pay seventy-five pounds—one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five francs.

2:33:33 Then, quite triumphant, he went back to the station.

2:33:37 Mrs. Aouda was beginning to come to herself. The influence to which the priests of Pillaji had subjected her was gradually wearing off, and her beautiful eyes were recovering all their Indian softness.

2:33:55 When the poet-king Ucaf Uddaul celebrates the charms of the Queen of Ahmehnagara, he expresses himself thus:

2:34:03 Her shining hair, evenly parted in two, frames the harmonious contours of her delicate white cheeks, glowing with polish and freshness.

2:34:14 Her ebony brows have the shape and the power of the bow of Kama, the god of love; and beneath her long silken lashes, in the black pupils of her great clear eyes, the purest reflections of the heavenly light swim as in the sacred lakes of the Himalaya.

2:34:33 Fine, even and white, her teeth shine between her smiling lips like drops of dew in the half-closed heart of a pomegranate flower.

2:34:43 Her dainty ears with their symmetrical curves, her rosy hands, her little feet, curved and tender as the buds of the lotus, gleam with the lustre of the finest pearls of Ceylon, of the finest diamonds of Golconda.

2:35:00 Her slender and supple waist, which a single hand may clasp, sets off the elegant curve of her rounded hips and the richness of her bosom, where youth in flower displays its most perfect treasures;

2:35:15 and beneath the silken folds of her tunic she seems to have been modelled in pure silver by the divine hand of Vicvacarma, the eternal sculptor.

2:35:26 But, without all this amplification, it is enough to say that Mrs. Aouda, the widow of the rajah of Bundelcund, was a charming woman in every sense of the word.

2:35:37 She spoke English with great purity, and the guide had not exaggerated in saying that this young Parsee owed much to her education.

2:35:46 Meanwhile the train was about to leave the station at Allahabad. The Parsee was waiting. Mr. Fogg paid him his wages at the agreed price, without exceeding it by a farthing.

2:35:59 This rather astonished Passepartout, who knew all that his master owed to the guide's devotion. The Parsee had indeed risked his life of his own free will in the affair at Pillaji, and if the rajah's people came to hear of it later, he would hardly escape their vengeance.

2:36:18 There remained, too, the question of Kiouni. What was to be done with an elephant bought at such a price?

2:36:26 But Phileas Fogg had already made up his mind on that point.

2:36:30 Phileas Fogg: Parsee, you have been obliging and devoted. I have paid for your service, but not for your devotion. Would you like this elephant? It is yours.

2:36:41 The guide's eyes shone.

2:36:43 the Parsee guide: Your Honour is giving me a fortune!

2:36:46 Phileas Fogg: Take it, guide, and I shall still be the one in your debt.

2:36:50 Jean Passepartout: That's more like it! Take him, my friend! Kiouni is a good, brave animal!

2:36:57 And, going up to the beast, he offered it a few lumps of sugar, saying:

2:37:02 Jean Passepartout: Here, Kiouni—here, here!

2:37:05 The elephant gave a few grunts of satisfaction. Then, taking Passepartout round the waist and coiling its trunk about him, it lifted him as high as its head.

2:37:16 Passepartout, not in the least frightened, gave the animal a good pat, and it set him gently down again; and the honest Kiouni's shake of the trunk was answered by a vigorous shake of the hand from the honest fellow.

2:37:30 A few moments later Phileas Fogg, Sir Francis Cromarty and Passepartout, settled in a comfortable carriage in which Mrs. Aouda had the best seat, were speeding at full steam towards Benares.

2:37:44 Eighty miles at most separate that city from Allahabad, and they were covered in two hours.

2:37:51 During the journey the young woman came fully to herself; the drowsy fumes of the hang cleared away.

2:37:58 What was her astonishment to find herself on the railway, in this compartment, dressed in European clothes, among travellers who were complete strangers to her!

2:38:08 First of all her companions lavished their care on her and revived her with a few drops of cordial; then the brigadier-general told her her own story.

2:38:19 He dwelt on the devotion of Phileas Fogg, who had not hesitated to stake his life to save her, and on the outcome of the adventure, which was due to the daring imagination of Passepartout.

2:38:31 Mr. Fogg let him talk without uttering a word. Passepartout, quite abashed, kept repeating that 'it wasn't worth the trouble'!

2:38:41 Mrs. Aouda thanked her rescuers with great feeling, more with her tears than with her words. Her beautiful eyes, better than her lips, were the interpreters of her gratitude.

2:38:53 Then, as her thoughts carried her back to the scenes of the suttee, and her eyes fell once more upon that Indian land where so many dangers still awaited her, she was seized with a shudder of terror.

2:39:07 Phileas Fogg understood what was passing in Mrs. Aouda's mind, and, to reassure her, he offered—very coldly, it must be said—to take her to Hong Kong, where she could stay until the affair had blown over.

2:39:22 Mrs. Aouda accepted the offer gratefully. As it happened, one of her relations lived in Hong Kong, a Parsee like herself, and one of the leading merchants of that city, which is entirely English, although it occupies a point on the Chinese coast.

2:39:39 At half-past twelve the train stopped at Benares station. The Brahmin legends affirm that this city stands on the site of the ancient Casi, which was once suspended in space, between the zenith and the nadir, like the tomb of Muhammad.

2:39:55 But in this more realistic age Benares, the Athens of India as the Orientalists call it, rested quite prosaically on the ground, and Passepartout could catch a glimpse for a moment of its brick houses and its wattle huts, which gave it a thoroughly desolate look, without any local colour.

2:40:15 It was here that Sir Francis Cromarty was to leave them. The troops he was rejoining were encamped a few miles north of the city.

2:40:23 The brigadier-general therefore took his leave of Phileas Fogg, wishing him every possible success, and expressing the hope that he would make the journey again some day in a less original but more profitable fashion.

2:40:37 Mr. Fogg lightly pressed his companion's fingers. Mrs. Aouda's farewells were warmer. Never would she forget what she owed to Sir Francis Cromarty.

2:40:48 As for Passepartout, he was honoured with a real handshake from the brigadier-general. Quite moved, he wondered where and when he might ever have the chance to show his devotion to him. Then they parted.

2:41:03 From Benares onwards the railway followed the valley of the Ganges for part of the way. Through the carriage windows, in fairly clear weather, there appeared the varied landscape of Behar, then mountains clothed in green, fields of barley, maize and wheat, streams and ponds peopled with greenish alligators, well-kept villages, forests still in leaf.

2:41:28 A few elephants and great-humped zebus came down to bathe in the waters of the sacred river, and also, despite the lateness of the season and the cold that had already set in, groups of Hindus, men and women, who were piously performing their holy ablutions.

2:41:46 These believers, bitter enemies of Buddhism, are fervent followers of the Brahmanic religion, which is embodied in three persons: Vishnu, the solar deity; Shiva, the divine personification of the forces of nature; and Brahma, the supreme master of priests and lawgivers.

2:42:06 But with what eye must Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu have looked upon this India, now 'Britannised', when some steamboat went neighing by and troubled the consecrated waters of the Ganges, scaring the gulls that flew over its surface, the turtles that swarmed along its edges, and the devout stretched out along its banks!

2:42:28 The whole panorama flashed past like lightning, and often a cloud of white steam hid its details.

2:42:35 The travellers could barely catch a glimpse of the fort of Chunar, twenty miles south-east of Benares, the ancient stronghold of the rajahs of Behar; of Ghazipur and its important rose-water works;

2:42:48 of the tomb of Lord Cornwallis, which stands on the left bank of the Ganges; of the fortified town of Buxar;

2:42:56 of Patna, a great city of industry and commerce, where the principal opium market of India is held;

2:43:04 of Monghir, a town more than European, as English as Manchester or Birmingham, famous for its iron foundries and its works for edge-tools and side-arms, whose tall chimneys fouled the sky of Brahma with black smoke—

2:43:20 a real punch in the land of dreams!

2:43:23 Then night came on, and, amid the howling of the tigers, bears and wolves that fled before the engine, the train sped on at full speed.

2:43:34 Nothing more was seen of the wonders of Bengal: neither Golconda, nor ruined Gour, nor Murshedabad, once a capital,

2:43:43 nor Burdwan, nor Hugly, nor Chandernagor, that French spot of Indian territory over which Passepartout would have been proud to see the flag of his country flying!

2:43:55 At last, at seven in the morning, Calcutta was reached. The steamer for Hong Kong did not weigh anchor until noon. Phileas Fogg therefore had five hours before him.

2:44:07 According to his itinerary, this gentleman was due to arrive in the capital of India on the twenty-fifth of October, twenty-three days after leaving London, and he was arriving on the appointed day. He was therefore neither behind nor ahead.

2:44:24 Unfortunately, the two days he had gained between London and Bombay had been lost, in the way we know, in this crossing of the Indian peninsula—but it is to be supposed that Phileas Fogg did not regret them.

2:44:39 Chapter XV: In which the bag of bank-notes grows lighter by a few thousand pounds more

2:44:43 Chapter Fifteen. In which the bag of bank-notes grows lighter by a few thousand pounds more.

2:44:51 The train had stopped in the station. Passepartout was the first out of the carriage, and he was followed by Mr. Fogg, who helped his young companion down on to the platform.

2:45:02 Phileas Fogg intended to go straight to the Hong Kong steamer, so as to settle Mrs. Aouda comfortably on board, for he did not wish to leave her as long as she was in a country so dangerous for her.

2:45:14 Just as Mr. Fogg was about to leave the station, a policeman came up to him and said:

2:45:20 the Calcutta policeman: Mr. Phileas Fogg?

2:45:22 Phileas Fogg: I am he.

2:45:23 the Calcutta policeman: Is this man your servant?

2:45:25 added the policeman, pointing to Passepartout.

2:45:28 Phileas Fogg: Yes.

2:45:29 the Calcutta policeman: Be so good as to follow me, both of you.

2:45:31 Mr. Fogg made no movement that could betray the slightest surprise. This officer was a representative of the law, and to every Englishman the law is sacred. Passepartout, with his French habits, wanted to argue, but the policeman touched him with his baton, and Phileas Fogg signed to him to obey.

2:45:53 Phileas Fogg: May this young lady come with us?

2:45:55 the Calcutta policeman: She may.

2:45:56 The policeman led Mr. Fogg, Mrs. Aouda and Passepartout to a palki-ghari, a sort of four-wheeled carriage with four seats, drawn by two horses. They set off. No one spoke during the drive, which lasted about twenty minutes.

2:46:14 The carriage first went through the Indian town, whose narrow streets were lined with huts crowded with a poor, cosmopolitan population; then it passed through the European town, brightened by brick houses, shaded by coconut palms, bristling with masts, where, despite the early hour, elegant horsemen and magnificent carriages were already going to and fro.

2:46:39 The palki-ghari stopped in front of a plain-looking building, which did not seem to be meant for domestic use. The policeman made his prisoners get out—they could truly be called that—and led them into a room with barred windows, saying to them:

2:46:55 the Calcutta policeman: It is at half-past eight that you will appear before Judge Obadiah.

2:46:59 Then he withdrew and shut the door.

2:47:02 Jean Passepartout: There! We're caught!

2:47:05 cried Passepartout, dropping into a chair.

2:47:08 Mrs. Aouda at once turned to Mr. Fogg and said, in a voice whose emotion she tried in vain to disguise:

2:47:16 Aouda: Sir, you must abandon me! It is because of me that you are being prosecuted! It is for having saved me!

2:47:24 Phileas Fogg merely replied that this was not possible.

2:47:27 Prosecuted for that affair of the suttee! Inadmissible! How would the complainants dare to come forward? There was some mistake.

2:47:36 Mr. Fogg added that, in any case, he would not abandon the young woman, and that he would take her to Hong Kong.

2:47:43 Jean Passepartout: But the boat leaves at noon!

2:47:45 Phileas Fogg: We shall be on board before noon,

2:47:48 the impassive gentleman replied simply.

2:47:51 This was stated so positively that Passepartout could not help saying to himself:

2:47:57 Jean Passepartout: Parbleu! That's certain! We'll be on board before noon!

2:48:01 But he was not reassured at all.

2:48:05 At half-past eight the door of the room opened. The policeman reappeared and showed the prisoners into the next room. It was a court-room, and a fairly large public, made up of Europeans and Indians, already filled the court.

2:48:21 Mr. Fogg, Mrs. Aouda and Passepartout sat down on a bench facing the seats reserved for the magistrate and the clerk.

2:48:29 This magistrate, Judge Obadiah, came in almost at once, followed by the clerk. He was a fat man, perfectly round. He took down a wig that hung on a nail and nimbly clapped it on his head.

2:48:44 Judge Obadiah: The first case.

2:48:46 But, putting his hand to his head:

2:48:48 Judge Obadiah: Hey! This is not my wig!

2:48:51 Oysterpuff: No indeed, Mr. Obadiah, it's mine.

2:48:54 replied the clerk.

2:48:56 Judge Obadiah: My dear Mr. Oysterpuff, how do you expect a judge to pass a sound sentence in a clerk's wig!

2:49:03 The wigs were exchanged. During these preliminaries Passepartout was boiling with impatience, for the hand seemed to him to be moving terribly fast round the face of the big clock in the court-room.

2:49:17 Judge Obadiah: The first case.

2:49:18 Judge Obadiah then resumed.

2:49:21 Oysterpuff: Phileas Fogg?

2:49:22 said Oysterpuff the clerk.

2:49:24 Phileas Fogg: Here I am.

2:49:25 Oysterpuff: Passepartout?

2:49:27 Jean Passepartout: Present!

2:49:28 Judge Obadiah: Good! For two days, prisoners, a watch has been kept for you on every train from Bombay.

2:49:34 Jean Passepartout: But what are we accused of?

2:49:37 cried Passepartout, out of patience.

2:49:40 Judge Obadiah: You are about to find out.

2:49:41 Phileas Fogg: Sir, I am an English citizen, and I have the right…

2:49:46 Judge Obadiah: Have you been treated with any want of respect?

2:49:49 Phileas Fogg: Not at all.

2:49:50 Judge Obadiah: Very well! Bring in the complainants.

2:49:52 At the judge's order a door opened, and three Hindu priests were shown in by an usher.

2:49:59 Jean Passepartout: That's it! They're the rascals who wanted to burn our young lady!

2:50:03 The priests stood before the judge, and the clerk read aloud a complaint of sacrilege brought against one Phileas Fogg and his servant, accused of having violated a place consecrated by the Brahmanic religion.

2:50:16 Judge Obadiah: You have heard?

2:50:18 the judge asked Phileas Fogg.

2:50:20 Phileas Fogg: Yes, sir,

2:50:21 replied Mr. Fogg, consulting his watch,

2:50:24 Phileas Fogg: and I admit it.

2:50:26 Judge Obadiah: Ah! You admit it?…

2:50:28 Phileas Fogg: I admit it, and I am waiting for these three priests to admit in their turn what they meant to do at the pagoda of Pillaji.

2:50:36 The priests looked at one another. They seemed not to understand a word of what the accused was saying.

2:50:43 Jean Passepartout: Of course!

2:50:44 cried Passepartout impetuously.

2:50:47 Jean Passepartout: At that pagoda of Pillaji, in front of which they were going to burn their victim!

2:50:51 Fresh stupefaction on the part of the priests, and profound astonishment on that of Judge Obadiah.

2:50:59 Judge Obadiah: What victim? Burn whom? In the very middle of Bombay?

2:51:05 Jean Passepartout: Bombay?

2:51:07 Judge Obadiah: Certainly. This is not a matter of the pagoda of Pillaji, but of the pagoda on Malabar Hill, at Bombay.

2:51:14 Oysterpuff: And here, as an exhibit, are the desecrator's shoes,

2:51:18 added the clerk, putting a pair of shoes on his desk.

2:51:23 Jean Passepartout: My shoes!

2:51:24 cried Passepartout, who, taken utterly by surprise, could not hold back this involuntary exclamation.

2:51:32 It is easy to guess the confusion that had arisen in the minds of master and servant. They had forgotten that incident at the pagoda in Bombay, and it was that very incident which had now brought them before the magistrate of Calcutta.

2:51:47 The fact was that the detective Fix had seen all the advantage he could draw from that unlucky affair.

2:51:54 Putting off his departure by twelve hours, he had made himself the adviser of the priests of Malabar Hill; he had promised them considerable damages, knowing well that the English government was very severe on offences of this kind; then, by the next train, he had sent them off on the track of the offender.

2:52:15 But, owing to the time spent in delivering the young widow, Fix and the priests reached Calcutta before Phileas Fogg and his servant, whom the magistrates, warned by telegram, were to arrest as they stepped off the train. Imagine Fix's disappointment when he learned that Phileas Fogg had not yet arrived in the capital of India.

2:52:37 He could only suppose that his thief had got off at one of the stations of the Peninsular Railway and taken refuge in the northern provinces. For twenty-four hours, in mortal anxiety, Fix watched for him at the station.

2:52:52 What was his joy, then, when that very morning he saw him get out of the carriage—in the company, it is true, of a young woman whose presence he could not explain!

2:53:02 He at once set a policeman on him; and that is how Mr. Fogg, Passepartout and the widow of the rajah of Bundelcund came to be brought before Judge Obadiah.

2:53:13 And had Passepartout been less taken up with his own affair, he would have noticed, in a corner of the court-room, the detective, who was following the proceedings with an interest easy to understand—

2:53:25 for at Calcutta, as at Bombay, as at Suez, the warrant of arrest was still missing!

2:53:33 Meanwhile Judge Obadiah had taken note of the admission that had escaped Passepartout, who would have given everything he possessed to take back his rash words.

2:53:44 Judge Obadiah: The facts are admitted?

2:53:45 Phileas Fogg: Admitted,

2:53:46 replied Mr. Fogg coldly.

2:53:49 Judge Obadiah: Whereas, whereas English law intends to protect equally and rigorously all the religions of the peoples of India; and the offence being admitted by one Passepartout, convicted of having violated with sacrilegious foot the pavement of the pagoda on Malabar Hill, at Bombay, in the course of the twentieth of October;

2:54:11 Judge Obadiah: the court sentences the said Passepartout to a fortnight's imprisonment and a fine of three hundred pounds.

2:54:18 Seven thousand five hundred francs.

2:54:20 Jean Passepartout: Three hundred pounds?

2:54:23 cried Passepartout, who was really alive only to the fine.

2:54:27 the constable: Silence!

2:54:28 cried the usher in a shrill yelp.

2:54:31 Judge Obadiah: And whereas it is not materially proved that there was no connivance between the servant and the master; and whereas in any case the latter must be held responsible for the acts of a servant in his pay;

2:54:45 Judge Obadiah: the court detains the said Phileas Fogg and sentences him to a week's imprisonment and a fine of one hundred and fifty pounds. Clerk, call another case!

2:54:56 Fix, in his corner, felt an inexpressible satisfaction. Phileas Fogg detained a week in Calcutta—that was more than enough to give the warrant time to reach him.

2:55:08 Passepartout was stunned. This sentence would ruin his master. A wager of twenty thousand pounds lost, and all because, like the gaping idler he was, he had gone into that cursed pagoda!

2:55:23 Phileas Fogg, as much master of himself as if the sentence had not concerned him, had not so much as frowned. But just as the clerk was calling another case, he rose and said:

2:55:35 Phileas Fogg: I offer bail.

2:55:37 Judge Obadiah: That is your right.

2:55:39 A chill ran down Fix's back; but he recovered his assurance when he heard the judge, 'in view of the status of Phileas Fogg and his servant as strangers', fix the bail for each of them at the enormous sum of a thousand pounds—twenty-five thousand francs.

2:55:57 It would cost Mr. Fogg two thousand pounds if he did not serve out his sentence.

2:56:03 Phileas Fogg: I will pay,

2:56:04 said that gentleman.

2:56:06 And from the bag that Passepartout was carrying he took out a bundle of bank-notes, which he laid on the clerk's desk.

2:56:14 Judge Obadiah: This sum will be returned to you when you come out of prison. In the meantime you are free on bail.

2:56:20 Phileas Fogg: Come.

2:56:21 Jean Passepartout: But at least let them give back the shoes!

2:56:23 cried Passepartout, in a fit of rage.

2:56:27 His shoes were given back to him.

2:56:29 Jean Passepartout: Now there's a pair that come dear! More than a thousand pounds apiece! Not to mention that they pinch!

2:56:37 Passepartout, utterly crestfallen, followed Mr. Fogg, who had offered his arm to the young woman. Fix still hoped that his thief would never bring himself to give up this sum of two thousand pounds, and that he would serve his week in prison. So he set off hot on Fogg's track.

2:56:57 Mr. Fogg took a carriage, into which Mrs. Aouda, Passepartout and he at once got. Fix ran after the carriage, which soon stopped on one of the quays of the town.

2:57:09 Half a mile out in the roads the Rangoon lay at anchor, her sailing flag hoisted at the masthead. Eleven o'clock was striking. Mr. Fogg was an hour early.

2:57:22 Fix saw him get out of the carriage and step into a boat with Mrs. Aouda and his servant. The detective stamped his foot.

2:57:31 Fix: The rascal! He's going! Two thousand pounds sacrificed! As prodigal as a thief!

2:57:39 Fix: Ah! I'll follow him to the end of the world if I have to; but at the rate he's going, all the stolen money will have gone!

2:57:48 The police inspector had good grounds for this reflection.

2:57:51 Indeed, since leaving London, what with travelling expenses, bonuses, the purchase of an elephant, bail and fines, Phileas Fogg had already scattered more than five thousand pounds—one hundred and twenty-five thousand francs—along his route, and the percentage of the recovered sum allotted to the detectives was steadily shrinking.