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1IN WHICH PHILEAS FOGG SECURES A CURIOUS MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AT A FABULOUS PRICE The train had started punctually. Among
2the passengers were a number of officers, Government officials, and opium and indigo merchants, whose business called
3them to the eastern coast. Passepartout rode in the same carriage with his master, and a third passenger occupied a seat
4opposite to them. This was Sir Francis Cromarty, one of Mr. Fogg's whist partners on the "Mongolia," now on his way to
5join his corps at Benares. Sir Francis was a tall, fair man of fifty, who had greatly distinguished himself in the last
6Sepoy revolt. He made India his home, only paying brief visits to England at rare intervals; and was almost as familiar
7as a native with the customs, history, and character of India and its people. But Phileas Fogg, who was not travelling,
8but only describing a circumference, took no pains to inquire into these subjects; he was a solid body, traversing an
9orbit around the terrestrial globe, according to the laws of rational mechanics. He was at this moment calculating in
10his mind the number of hours spent since his departure from London, and, had it been in his nature to make a useless
11demonstration, would have rubbed his hands for satisfaction. Sir Francis Cromarty had observed the oddity of his
12travelling companion--although the only opportunity he had for studying him had been while he was dealing the cards, and
13between two rubbers--and questioned himself whether a human heart really beat beneath this cold exterior, and whether
14Phileas Fogg had any sense of the beauties of nature. The brigadier-general was free to mentally confess that, of all
15the eccentric persons he had ever met, none was comparable to this product of the exact sciences. Phileas Fogg had not
16concealed from Sir Francis his design of going round the world, nor the circumstances under which he set out; and the
17general only saw in the wager a useless eccentricity and a lack of sound common sense. In the way this strange gentleman
18was going on, he would leave the world without having done any good to himself or anybody else. An hour after leaving
19Bombay the train had passed the viaducts and the Island of Salcette, and had got into the open country. At Callyan they
20reached the junction of the branch line which descends towards south-eastern India by Kandallah and Pounah; and, passing
21Pauwell, they entered the defiles of the mountains, with their basalt bases, and their summits crowned with thick and
22verdant forests. Phileas Fogg and Sir Francis Cromarty exchanged a few words from time to time, and now Sir Francis,
23reviving the conversation, observed, "Some years ago, Mr. Fogg, you would have met with a delay at this point which
24would probably have lost you your wager." "How so, Sir Francis?" "Because the railway stopped at the base of these
25mountains, which the passengers were obliged to cross in palanquins or on ponies to Kandallah, on the other side." "Such
26a delay would not have deranged my plans in the least," said Mr. Fogg. "I have constantly foreseen the likelihood of
27certain obstacles." "But, Mr. Fogg," pursued Sir Francis, "you run the risk of having some difficulty about this worthy
28fellow's adventure at the pagoda." Passepartout, his feet comfortably wrapped in his travelling-blanket, was sound
29asleep and did not dream that anybody was talking about him. "The Government is very severe upon that kind of offence.
30It takes particular care that the religious customs of the Indians should be respected, and if your servant were
31caught--" "Very well, Sir Francis," replied Mr. Fogg; "if he had been caught he would have been condemned and punished,
32and then would have quietly returned to Europe. I don't see how this affair could have delayed his master." The
33conversation fell again. During the night the train left the mountains behind, and passed Nassik, and the next day
34proceeded over the flat, well-cultivated country of the Khandeish, with its straggling villages, above which rose the
35minarets of the pagodas. This fertile territory is watered by numerous small rivers and limpid streams, mostly
36tributaries of the Godavery. Passepartout, on waking and looking out, could not realise that he was actually crossing
37India in a railway train. The locomotive, guided by an English engineer and fed with English coal, threw out its smoke
38upon cotton, coffee, nutmeg, clove, and pepper plantations, while the steam curled in spirals around groups of
39palm-trees, in the midst of which were seen picturesque bungalows, viharis (sort of abandoned monasteries), and
40marvellous temples enriched by the exhaustless ornamentation of Indian architecture. Then they came upon vast tracts
41extending to the horizon, with jungles inhabited by snakes and tigers, which fled at the noise of the train; succeeded
42by forests penetrated by the railway, and still haunted by elephants which, with pensive eyes, gazed at the train as it
43passed. The travellers crossed, beyond Milligaum, the fatal country so often stained with blood by the sectaries of the
44goddess Kali. Not far off rose Ellora, with its graceful pagodas, and the famous Aurungabad, capital of the ferocious
45Aureng-Zeb, now the chief town of one of the detached provinces of the kingdom of the Nizam. It was thereabouts that
46Feringhea, the Thuggee chief, king of the stranglers, held his sway. These ruffians, united by a secret bond, strangled
47victims of every age in honour of the goddess Death, without ever shedding blood; there was a period when this part of
48the country could scarcely be travelled over without corpses being found in every direction. The English Government has
49succeeded in greatly diminishing these murders, though the Thuggees still exist, and pursue the exercise of their
50horrible rites. At half-past twelve the train stopped at Burhampoor where Passepartout was able to purchase some Indian
51slippers, ornamented with false pearls, in which, with evident vanity, he proceeded to encase his feet. The travellers
52made a hasty breakfast and started off for Assurghur, after skirting for a little the banks of the small river Tapty,
53which empties into the Gulf of Cambray, near Surat. Passepartout was now plunged into absorbing reverie. Up to his
54arrival at Bombay, he had entertained hopes that their journey would end there; but, now that they were plainly whirling
55across India at full speed, a sudden change had come over the spirit of his dreams. His old vagabond nature returned to
56him; the fantastic ideas of his youth once more took possession of him. He came to regard his master's project as
57intended in good earnest, believed in the reality of the bet, and therefore in the tour of the world and the necessity
58of making it without fail within the designated period. Already he began to worry about possible delays, and accidents
59which might happen on the way. He recognised himself as being personally interested in the wager, and trembled at the
60thought that he might have been the means of losing it by his unpardonable folly of the night before. Being much less
61cool-headed than Mr. Fogg, he was much more restless, counting and recounting the days passed over, uttering
62maledictions when the train stopped, and accusing it of sluggishness, and mentally blaming Mr. Fogg for not having
63bribed the engineer. The worthy fellow was ignorant that, while it was possible by such means to hasten the rate of a
64steamer, it could not be done on the railway. The train entered the defiles of the Sutpour Mountains, which separate the
65Khandeish from Bundelcund, towards evening. The next day Sir Francis Cromarty asked Passepartout what time it was; to
66which, on consulting his watch, he replied that it was three in the morning. This famous timepiece, always regulated on
67the Greenwich meridian, which was now some seventy-seven degrees westward, was at least four hours slow. Sir Francis
68corrected Passepartout's time, whereupon the latter made the same remark that he had done to Fix; and upon the general
69insisting that the watch should be regulated in each new meridian, since he was constantly going eastward, that is in
70the face of the sun, and therefore the days were shorter by four minutes for each degree gone over, Passepartout
71obstinately refused to alter his watch, which he kept at London time. It was an innocent delusion which could harm no
72one. The train stopped, at eight o'clock, in the midst of a glade some fifteen miles beyond Rothal, where there were
73several bungalows, and workmen's cabins. The conductor, passing along the carriages, shouted, "Passengers will get out
74here!" Phileas Fogg looked at Sir Francis Cromarty for an explanation; but the general could not tell what meant a halt
75in the midst of this forest of dates and acacias. Passepartout, not less surprised, rushed out and speedily returned,
76crying: "Monsieur, no more railway!" "What do you mean?" asked Sir Francis. "I mean to say that the train isn't going
77on."
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