Around the World in Eighty Days, Page 32

  Chapter XXXI

  IN WHICH FIX, THE DETECTIVE, CONSIDERABLY FURTHERS THE INTERESTS OFPHILEAS FOGG

  Phileas Fogg found himself twenty hours behind time. Passepartout, theinvoluntary cause of this delay, was desperate. He had ruined hismaster!

  At this moment the detective approached Mr. Fogg, and, looking himintently in the face, said:

  "Seriously, sir, are you in great haste?"

  "Quite seriously."

  "I have a purpose in asking," resumed Fix. "Is it absolutely necessarythat you should be in New York on the 11th, before nine o'clock in theevening, the time that the steamer leaves for Liverpool?"

  "It is absolutely necessary."

  "And, if your journey had not been interrupted by these Indians, youwould have reached New York on the morning of the 11th?"

  "Yes; with eleven hours to spare before the steamer left."

  "Good! you are therefore twenty hours behind. Twelve from twentyleaves eight. You must regain eight hours. Do you wish to try to doso?"

  "On foot?" asked Mr. Fogg.

  "No; on a sledge," replied Fix. "On a sledge with sails. A man hasproposed such a method to me."

  It was the man who had spoken to Fix during the night, and whose offerhe had refused.

  Phileas Fogg did not reply at once; but Fix, having pointed out theman, who was walking up and down in front of the station, Mr. Fogg wentup to him. An instant after, Mr. Fogg and the American, whose name wasMudge, entered a hut built just below the fort.

  There Mr. Fogg examined a curious vehicle, a kind of frame on two longbeams, a little raised in front like the runners of a sledge, and uponwhich there was room for five or six persons. A high mast was fixed onthe frame, held firmly by metallic lashings, to which was attached alarge brigantine sail. This mast held an iron stay upon which to hoista jib-sail. Behind, a sort of rudder served to guide the vehicle. Itwas, in short, a sledge rigged like a sloop. During the winter, whenthe trains are blocked up by the snow, these sledges make extremelyrapid journeys across the frozen plains from one station to another.Provided with more sails than a cutter, and with the wind behind them,they slip over the surface of the prairies with a speed equal if notsuperior to that of the express trains.

  Mr. Fogg readily made a bargain with the owner of this land-craft. Thewind was favourable, being fresh, and blowing from the west. The snowhad hardened, and Mudge was very confident of being able to transportMr. Fogg in a few hours to Omaha. Thence the trains eastward runfrequently to Chicago and New York. It was not impossible that thelost time might yet be recovered; and such an opportunity was not to berejected.

  Not wishing to expose Aouda to the discomforts of travelling in theopen air, Mr. Fogg proposed to leave her with Passepartout at FortKearney, the servant taking upon himself to escort her to Europe by abetter route and under more favourable conditions. But Aouda refusedto separate from Mr. Fogg, and Passepartout was delighted with herdecision; for nothing could induce him to leave his master while Fixwas with him.

  It would be difficult to guess the detective's thoughts. Was thisconviction shaken by Phileas Fogg's return, or did he still regard himas an exceedingly shrewd rascal, who, his journey round the worldcompleted, would think himself absolutely safe in England? PerhapsFix's opinion of Phileas Fogg was somewhat modified; but he wasnevertheless resolved to do his duty, and to hasten the return of thewhole party to England as much as possible.

  At eight o'clock the sledge was ready to start. The passengers tooktheir places on it, and wrapped themselves up closely in theirtravelling-cloaks. The two great sails were hoisted, and under thepressure of the wind the sledge slid over the hardened snow with avelocity of forty miles an hour.

  The distance between Fort Kearney and Omaha, as the birds fly, is atmost two hundred miles. If the wind held good, the distance might betraversed in five hours; if no accident happened the sledge might reachOmaha by one o'clock.

  What a journey! The travellers, huddled close together, could notspeak for the cold, intensified by the rapidity at which they weregoing. The sledge sped on as lightly as a boat over the waves. Whenthe breeze came skimming the earth the sledge seemed to be lifted offthe ground by its sails. Mudge, who was at the rudder, kept in astraight line, and by a turn of his hand checked the lurches which thevehicle had a tendency to make. All the sails were up, and the jib wasso arranged as not to screen the brigantine. A top-mast was hoisted,and another jib, held out to the wind, added its force to the othersails. Although the speed could not be exactly estimated, the sledgecould not be going at less than forty miles an hour.

  "If nothing breaks," said Mudge, "we shall get there!"

  Mr. Fogg had made it for Mudge's interest to reach Omaha within thetime agreed on, by the offer of a handsome reward.

  The prairie, across which the sledge was moving in a straight line, wasas flat as a sea. It seemed like a vast frozen lake. The railroadwhich ran through this section ascended from the south-west to thenorth-west by Great Island, Columbus, an important Nebraska town,Schuyler, and Fremont, to Omaha. It followed throughout the right bankof the Platte River. The sledge, shortening this route, took a chordof the arc described by the railway. Mudge was not afraid of beingstopped by the Platte River, because it was frozen. The road, then,was quite clear of obstacles, and Phileas Fogg had but two things tofear--an accident to the sledge, and a change or calm in the wind.

  But the breeze, far from lessening its force, blew as if to bend themast, which, however, the metallic lashings held firmly. Theselashings, like the chords of a stringed instrument, resounded as ifvibrated by a violin bow. The sledge slid along in the midst of aplaintively intense melody.

  "Those chords give the fifth and the octave," said Mr. Fogg.

  These were the only words he uttered during the journey. Aouda, cosilypacked in furs and cloaks, was sheltered as much as possible from theattacks of the freezing wind. As for Passepartout, his face was as redas the sun's disc when it sets in the mist, and he laboriously inhaledthe biting air. With his natural buoyancy of spirits, he began to hopeagain. They would reach New York on the evening, if not on themorning, of the 11th, and there was still some chances that it would bebefore the steamer sailed for Liverpool.

  Passepartout even felt a strong desire to grasp his ally, Fix, by thehand. He remembered that it was the detective who procured the sledge,the only means of reaching Omaha in time; but, checked by somepresentiment, he kept his usual reserve. One thing, however,Passepartout would never forget, and that was the sacrifice which Mr.Fogg had made, without hesitation, to rescue him from the Sioux. Mr.Fogg had risked his fortune and his life. No! His servant would neverforget that!

  While each of the party was absorbed in reflections so different, thesledge flew past over the vast carpet of snow. The creeks it passedover were not perceived. Fields and streams disappeared under theuniform whiteness. The plain was absolutely deserted. Between theUnion Pacific road and the branch which unites Kearney with SaintJoseph it formed a great uninhabited island. Neither village, station,nor fort appeared. From time to time they sped by some phantom-liketree, whose white skeleton twisted and rattled in the wind. Sometimesflocks of wild birds rose, or bands of gaunt, famished, ferociousprairie-wolves ran howling after the sledge. Passepartout, revolver inhand, held himself ready to fire on those which came too near. Had anaccident then happened to the sledge, the travellers, attacked by thesebeasts, would have been in the most terrible danger; but it held on itseven course, soon gained on the wolves, and ere long left the howlingband at a safe distance behind.

  About noon Mudge perceived by certain landmarks that he was crossingthe Platte River. He said nothing, but he felt certain that he was nowwithin twenty miles of Omaha. In less than an hour he left the rudderand furled his sails, whilst the sledge, carried forward by the greatimpetus the wind had given it, went on half a mile further with itssails unspread.

  It stopped at last, and Mudge, pointing to a mass of roofs
white withsnow, said: "We have got there!"

  Arrived! Arrived at the station which is in daily communication, bynumerous trains, with the Atlantic seaboard!

  Passepartout and Fix jumped off, stretched their stiffened limbs, andaided Mr. Fogg and the young woman to descend from the sledge. PhileasFogg generously rewarded Mudge, whose hand Passepartout warmly grasped,and the party directed their steps to the Omaha railway station.

  The Pacific Railroad proper finds its terminus at this importantNebraska town. Omaha is connected with Chicago by the Chicago and RockIsland Railroad, which runs directly east, and passes fifty stations.

  A train was ready to start when Mr. Fogg and his party reached thestation, and they only had time to get into the cars. They had seennothing of Omaha; but Passepartout confessed to himself that this wasnot to be regretted, as they were not travelling to see the sights.

  The train passed rapidly across the State of Iowa, by Council Bluffs,Des Moines, and Iowa City. During the night it crossed the Mississippiat Davenport, and by Rock Island entered Illinois. The next day, whichwas the 10th, at four o'clock in the evening, it reached Chicago,already risen from its ruins, and more proudly seated than ever on theborders of its beautiful Lake Michigan.

  Nine hundred miles separated Chicago from New York; but trains are notwanting at Chicago. Mr. Fogg passed at once from one to the other, andthe locomotive of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railway leftat full speed, as if it fully comprehended that that gentleman had notime to lose. It traversed Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jerseylike a flash, rushing through towns with antique names, some of whichhad streets and car-tracks, but as yet no houses. At last the Hudsoncame into view; and, at a quarter-past eleven in the evening of the11th, the train stopped in the station on the right bank of the river,before the very pier of the Cunard line.

  The China, for Liverpool, had started three-quarters of an hour before!