Around the World in Eighty Days, Page 37

  Chapter XXXVI

  IN WHICH PHILEAS FOGG'S NAME IS ONCE MORE AT A PREMIUM ON 'CHANGE

  It is time to relate what a change took place in English public opinionwhen it transpired that the real bankrobber, a certain James Strand,had been arrested, on the 17th day of December, at Edinburgh. Threedays before, Phileas Fogg had been a criminal, who was beingdesperately followed up by the police; now he was an honourablegentleman, mathematically pursuing his eccentric journey round theworld.

  The papers resumed their discussion about the wager; all those who hadlaid bets, for or against him, revived their interest, as if by magic;the "Phileas Fogg bonds" again became negotiable, and many new wagerswere made. Phileas Fogg's name was once more at a premium on 'Change.

  His five friends of the Reform Club passed these three days in a stateof feverish suspense. Would Phileas Fogg, whom they had forgotten,reappear before their eyes! Where was he at this moment? The 17th ofDecember, the day of James Strand's arrest, was the seventy-sixth sincePhileas Fogg's departure, and no news of him had been received. Was hedead? Had he abandoned the effort, or was he continuing his journeyalong the route agreed upon? And would he appear on Saturday, the 21stof December, at a quarter before nine in the evening, on the thresholdof the Reform Club saloon?

  The anxiety in which, for three days, London society existed, cannot bedescribed. Telegrams were sent to America and Asia for news of PhileasFogg. Messengers were dispatched to the house in Saville Row morningand evening. No news. The police were ignorant what had become of thedetective, Fix, who had so unfortunately followed up a false scent.Bets increased, nevertheless, in number and value. Phileas Fogg, likea racehorse, was drawing near his last turning-point. The bonds werequoted, no longer at a hundred below par, but at twenty, at ten, and atfive; and paralytic old Lord Albemarle bet even in his favour.

  A great crowd was collected in Pall Mall and the neighbouring streetson Saturday evening; it seemed like a multitude of brokers permanentlyestablished around the Reform Club. Circulation was impeded, andeverywhere disputes, discussions, and financial transactions were goingon. The police had great difficulty in keeping back the crowd, and asthe hour when Phileas Fogg was due approached, the excitement rose toits highest pitch.

  The five antagonists of Phileas Fogg had met in the great saloon of theclub. John Sullivan and Samuel Fallentin, the bankers, Andrew Stuart,the engineer, Gauthier Ralph, the director of the Bank of England, andThomas Flanagan, the brewer, one and all waited anxiously.

  When the clock indicated twenty minutes past eight, Andrew Stuart gotup, saying, "Gentlemen, in twenty minutes the time agreed upon betweenMr. Fogg and ourselves will have expired."

  "What time did the last train arrive from Liverpool?" asked ThomasFlanagan.

  "At twenty-three minutes past seven," replied Gauthier Ralph; "and thenext does not arrive till ten minutes after twelve."

  "Well, gentlemen," resumed Andrew Stuart, "if Phileas Fogg had come inthe 7:23 train, he would have got here by this time. We can,therefore, regard the bet as won."

  "Wait; don't let us be too hasty," replied Samuel Fallentin. "You knowthat Mr. Fogg is very eccentric. His punctuality is well known; henever arrives too soon, or too late; and I should not be surprised ifhe appeared before us at the last minute."

  "Why," said Andrew Stuart nervously, "if I should see him, I should notbelieve it was he."

  "The fact is," resumed Thomas Flanagan, "Mr. Fogg's project wasabsurdly foolish. Whatever his punctuality, he could not prevent thedelays which were certain to occur; and a delay of only two or threedays would be fatal to his tour."

  "Observe, too," added John Sullivan, "that we have received nointelligence from him, though there are telegraphic lines all along hisroute."

  "He has lost, gentleman," said Andrew Stuart, "he has a hundred timeslost! You know, besides, that the China the only steamer he could havetaken from New York to get here in time arrived yesterday. I have seena list of the passengers, and the name of Phileas Fogg is not amongthem. Even if we admit that fortune has favoured him, he can scarcelyhave reached America. I think he will be at least twenty daysbehind-hand, and that Lord Albemarle will lose a cool five thousand."

  "It is clear," replied Gauthier Ralph; "and we have nothing to do butto present Mr. Fogg's cheque at Barings to-morrow."

  At this moment, the hands of the club clock pointed to twenty minutesto nine.

  "Five minutes more," said Andrew Stuart.

  The five gentlemen looked at each other. Their anxiety was becomingintense; but, not wishing to betray it, they readily assented to Mr.Fallentin's proposal of a rubber.

  "I wouldn't give up my four thousand of the bet," said Andrew Stuart,as he took his seat, "for three thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine."

  The clock indicated eighteen minutes to nine.

  The players took up their cards, but could not keep their eyes off theclock. Certainly, however secure they felt, minutes had never seemedso long to them!

  "Seventeen minutes to nine," said Thomas Flanagan, as he cut the cardswhich Ralph handed to him.

  Then there was a moment of silence. The great saloon was perfectlyquiet; but the murmurs of the crowd outside were heard, with now andthen a shrill cry. The pendulum beat the seconds, which each playereagerly counted, as he listened, with mathematical regularity.

  "Sixteen minutes to nine!" said John Sullivan, in a voice whichbetrayed his emotion.

  One minute more, and the wager would be won. Andrew Stuart and hispartners suspended their game. They left their cards, and counted theseconds.

  At the fortieth second, nothing. At the fiftieth, still nothing.

  At the fifty-fifth, a loud cry was heard in the street, followed byapplause, hurrahs, and some fierce growls.

  The players rose from their seats.

  At the fifty-seventh second the door of the saloon opened; and thependulum had not beat the sixtieth second when Phileas Fogg appeared,followed by an excited crowd who had forced their way through the clubdoors, and in his calm voice, said, "Here I am, gentlemen!"

  Chapter XXXVII

  IN WHICH IT IS SHOWN THAT PHILEAS FOGG GAINED NOTHING BY HIS TOURAROUND THE WORLD, UNLESS IT WERE HAPPINESS

  Yes; Phileas Fogg in person.

  The reader will remember that at five minutes past eight in theevening--about five and twenty hours after the arrival of thetravellers in London--Passepartout had been sent by his master toengage the services of the Reverend Samuel Wilson in a certain marriageceremony, which was to take place the next day.

  Passepartout went on his errand enchanted. He soon reached theclergyman's house, but found him not at home. Passepartout waited agood twenty minutes, and when he left the reverend gentleman, it wasthirty-five minutes past eight. But in what a state he was! With hishair in disorder, and without his hat, he ran along the street as neverman was seen to run before, overturning passers-by, rushing over thesidewalk like a waterspout.

  In three minutes he was in Saville Row again, and staggered back intoMr. Fogg's room.

  He could not speak.

  "What is the matter?" asked Mr. Fogg.

  "My master!" gasped Passepartout--"marriage--impossible--"

  "Impossible?"

  "Impossible--for to-morrow."

  "Why so?"

  "Because to-morrow--is Sunday!"

  "Monday," replied Mr. Fogg.

  "No--to-day is Saturday."

  "Saturday? Impossible!"

  "Yes, yes, yes, yes!" cried Passepartout. "You have made a mistake ofone day! We arrived twenty-four hours ahead of time; but there areonly ten minutes left!"

  Passepartout had seized his master by the collar, and was dragging himalong with irresistible force.

  Phileas Fogg, thus kidnapped, without having time to think, left hishouse, jumped into a cab, promised a hundred pounds to the cabman, and,having run over two dogs and overturned five carriages, reached theReform Club.

  The clock indicated a quart
er before nine when he appeared in the greatsaloon.

  Phileas Fogg had accomplished the journey round the world in eightydays!

  Phileas Fogg had won his wager of twenty thousand pounds!

  How was it that a man so exact and fastidious could have made thiserror of a day? How came he to think that he had arrived in London onSaturday, the twenty-first day of December, when it was really Friday,the twentieth, the seventy-ninth day only from his departure?

  The cause of the error is very simple.

  Phileas Fogg had, without suspecting it, gained one day on his journey,and this merely because he had travelled constantly eastward; he would,on the contrary, have lost a day had he gone in the opposite direction,that is, westward.

  In journeying eastward he had gone towards the sun, and the daystherefore diminished for him as many times four minutes as he crosseddegrees in this direction. There are three hundred and sixty degreeson the circumference of the earth; and these three hundred and sixtydegrees, multiplied by four minutes, gives precisely twenty-fourhours--that is, the day unconsciously gained. In other words, whilePhileas Fogg, going eastward, saw the sun pass the meridian eightytimes, his friends in London only saw it pass the meridian seventy-ninetimes. This is why they awaited him at the Reform Club on Saturday,and not Sunday, as Mr. Fogg thought.

  And Passepartout's famous family watch, which had always kept Londontime, would have betrayed this fact, if it had marked the days as wellas the hours and the minutes!

  Phileas Fogg, then, had won the twenty thousand pounds; but, as he hadspent nearly nineteen thousand on the way, the pecuniary gain wassmall. His object was, however, to be victorious, and not to winmoney. He divided the one thousand pounds that remained betweenPassepartout and the unfortunate Fix, against whom he cherished nogrudge. He deducted, however, from Passepartout's share the cost ofthe gas which had burned in his room for nineteen hundred and twentyhours, for the sake of regularity.

  That evening, Mr. Fogg, as tranquil and phlegmatic as ever, said toAouda: "Is our marriage still agreeable to you?"

  "Mr. Fogg," replied she, "it is for me to ask that question. You wereruined, but now you are rich again."

  "Pardon me, madam; my fortune belongs to you. If you had not suggestedour marriage, my servant would not have gone to the Reverend SamuelWilson's, I should not have been apprised of my error, and--"

  "Dear Mr. Fogg!" said the young woman.

  "Dear Aouda!" replied Phileas Fogg.

  It need not be said that the marriage took place forty-eight hoursafter, and that Passepartout, glowing and dazzling, gave the brideaway. Had he not saved her, and was he not entitled to this honour?

  The next day, as soon as it was light, Passepartout rapped vigorouslyat his master's door. Mr. Fogg opened it, and asked, "What's thematter, Passepartout?"

  "What is it, sir? Why, I've just this instant found out--"

  "What?"

  "That we might have made the tour of the world in only seventy-eightdays."

  "No doubt," returned Mr. Fogg, "by not crossing India. But if I hadnot crossed India, I should not have saved Aouda; she would not havebeen my wife, and--"

  Mr. Fogg quietly shut the door.

  Phileas Fogg had won his wager, and had made his journey around theworld in eighty days. To do this he had employed every means ofconveyance--steamers, railways, carriages, yachts, trading-vessels,sledges, elephants. The eccentric gentleman had throughout displayedall his marvellous qualities of coolness and exactitude. But whatthen? What had he really gained by all this trouble? What had hebrought back from this long and weary journey?

  Nothing, say you? Perhaps so; nothing but a charming woman, who,strange as it may appear, made him the happiest of men!

  Truly, would you not for less than that make the tour around the world?