by Jules Verne
Chapter XIX
IN WHICH PASSEPARTOUT TAKES A TOO GREAT INTEREST IN HIS MASTER, ANDWHAT COMES OF IT
Hong Kong is an island which came into the possession of the English bythe Treaty of Nankin, after the war of 1842; and the colonising geniusof the English has created upon it an important city and an excellentport. The island is situated at the mouth of the Canton River, and isseparated by about sixty miles from the Portuguese town of Macao, onthe opposite coast. Hong Kong has beaten Macao in the struggle for theChinese trade, and now the greater part of the transportation ofChinese goods finds its depot at the former place. Docks, hospitals,wharves, a Gothic cathedral, a government house, macadamised streets,give to Hong Kong the appearance of a town in Kent or Surreytransferred by some strange magic to the antipodes.
Passepartout wandered, with his hands in his pockets, towards theVictoria port, gazing as he went at the curious palanquins and othermodes of conveyance, and the groups of Chinese, Japanese, and Europeanswho passed to and fro in the streets. Hong Kong seemed to him notunlike Bombay, Calcutta, and Singapore, since, like them, it betrayedeverywhere the evidence of English supremacy. At the Victoria port hefound a confused mass of ships of all nations: English, French,American, and Dutch, men-of-war and trading vessels, Japanese andChinese junks, sempas, tankas, and flower-boats, which formed so manyfloating parterres. Passepartout noticed in the crowd a number of thenatives who seemed very old and were dressed in yellow. On going intoa barber's to get shaved he learned that these ancient men were all atleast eighty years old, at which age they are permitted to wear yellow,which is the Imperial colour. Passepartout, without exactly knowingwhy, thought this very funny.
On reaching the quay where they were to embark on the Carnatic, he wasnot astonished to find Fix walking up and down. The detective seemedvery much disturbed and disappointed.
"This is bad," muttered Passepartout, "for the gentlemen of the ReformClub!" He accosted Fix with a merry smile, as if he had not perceivedthat gentleman's chagrin. The detective had, indeed, good reasons toinveigh against the bad luck which pursued him. The warrant had notcome! It was certainly on the way, but as certainly it could not nowreach Hong Kong for several days; and, this being the last Englishterritory on Mr. Fogg's route, the robber would escape, unless he couldmanage to detain him.
"Well, Monsieur Fix," said Passepartout, "have you decided to go withus so far as America?"
"Yes," returned Fix, through his set teeth.
"Good!" exclaimed Passepartout, laughing heartily. "I knew you couldnot persuade yourself to separate from us. Come and engage your berth."
They entered the steamer office and secured cabins for four persons.The clerk, as he gave them the tickets, informed them that, the repairson the Carnatic having been completed, the steamer would leave thatvery evening, and not next morning, as had been announced.
"That will suit my master all the better," said Passepartout. "I willgo and let him know."
Fix now decided to make a bold move; he resolved to tell Passepartoutall. It seemed to be the only possible means of keeping Phileas Foggseveral days longer at Hong Kong. He accordingly invited his companioninto a tavern which caught his eye on the quay. On entering, theyfound themselves in a large room handsomely decorated, at the end ofwhich was a large camp-bed furnished with cushions. Several personslay upon this bed in a deep sleep. At the small tables which werearranged about the room some thirty customers were drinking Englishbeer, porter, gin, and brandy; smoking, the while, long red clay pipesstuffed with little balls of opium mingled with essence of rose. Fromtime to time one of the smokers, overcome with the narcotic, would slipunder the table, whereupon the waiters, taking him by the head andfeet, carried and laid him upon the bed. The bed already supportedtwenty of these stupefied sots.
Fix and Passepartout saw that they were in a smoking-house haunted bythose wretched, cadaverous, idiotic creatures to whom the Englishmerchants sell every year the miserable drug called opium, to theamount of one million four hundred thousand pounds--thousands devotedto one of the most despicable vices which afflict humanity! TheChinese government has in vain attempted to deal with the evil bystringent laws. It passed gradually from the rich, to whom it was atfirst exclusively reserved, to the lower classes, and then its ravagescould not be arrested. Opium is smoked everywhere, at all times, bymen and women, in the Celestial Empire; and, once accustomed to it, thevictims cannot dispense with it, except by suffering horrible bodilycontortions and agonies. A great smoker can smoke as many as eightpipes a day; but he dies in five years. It was in one of these densthat Fix and Passepartout, in search of a friendly glass, foundthemselves. Passepartout had no money, but willingly accepted Fix'sinvitation in the hope of returning the obligation at some future time.
They ordered two bottles of port, to which the Frenchman did amplejustice, whilst Fix observed him with close attention. They chattedabout the journey, and Passepartout was especially merry at the ideathat Fix was going to continue it with them. When the bottles wereempty, however, he rose to go and tell his master of the change in thetime of the sailing of the Carnatic.
Fix caught him by the arm, and said, "Wait a moment."
"What for, Mr. Fix?"
"I want to have a serious talk with you."
"A serious talk!" cried Passepartout, drinking up the little wine thatwas left in the bottom of his glass. "Well, we'll talk about itto-morrow; I haven't time now."
"Stay! What I have to say concerns your master."
Passepartout, at this, looked attentively at his companion. Fix's faceseemed to have a singular expression. He resumed his seat.
"What is it that you have to say?"
Fix placed his hand upon Passepartout's arm, and, lowering his voice,said, "You have guessed who I am?"
"Parbleu!" said Passepartout, smiling.
"Then I'm going to tell you everything--"
"Now that I know everything, my friend! Ah! that's very good. But goon, go on. First, though, let me tell you that those gentlemen haveput themselves to a useless expense."
"Useless!" said Fix. "You speak confidently. It's clear that youdon't know how large the sum is."
"Of course I do," returned Passepartout. "Twenty thousand pounds."
"Fifty-five thousand!" answered Fix, pressing his companion's hand.
"What!" cried the Frenchman. "Has Monsieur Fogg dared--fifty-fivethousand pounds! Well, there's all the more reason for not losing aninstant," he continued, getting up hastily.
Fix pushed Passepartout back in his chair, and resumed: "Fifty-fivethousand pounds; and if I succeed, I get two thousand pounds. Ifyou'll help me, I'll let you have five hundred of them."
"Help you?" cried Passepartout, whose eyes were standing wide open.
"Yes; help me keep Mr. Fogg here for two or three days."
"Why, what are you saying? Those gentlemen are not satisfied withfollowing my master and suspecting his honour, but they must try to putobstacles in his way! I blush for them!"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that it is a piece of shameful trickery. They might as wellwaylay Mr. Fogg and put his money in their pockets!"
"That's just what we count on doing."
"It's a conspiracy, then," cried Passepartout, who became more and moreexcited as the liquor mounted in his head, for he drank withoutperceiving it. "A real conspiracy! And gentlemen, too. Bah!"
Fix began to be puzzled.
"Members of the Reform Club!" continued Passepartout. "You must know,Monsieur Fix, that my master is an honest man, and that, when he makesa wager, he tries to win it fairly!"
"But who do you think I am?" asked Fix, looking at him intently.
"Parbleu! An agent of the members of the Reform Club, sent out here tointerrupt my master's journey. But, though I found you out some timeago, I've taken good care to say nothing about it to Mr. Fogg."
"He knows nothing, then?"
"Nothing," replied Passepartout,
again emptying his glass.
The detective passed his hand across his forehead, hesitating before hespoke again. What should he do? Passepartout's mistake seemedsincere, but it made his design more difficult. It was evident thatthe servant was not the master's accomplice, as Fix had been inclinedto suspect.
"Well," said the detective to himself, "as he is not an accomplice, hewill help me."
He had no time to lose: Fogg must be detained at Hong Kong, so heresolved to make a clean breast of it.
"Listen to me," said Fix abruptly. "I am not, as you think, an agentof the members of the Reform Club--"
"Bah!" retorted Passepartout, with an air of raillery.
"I am a police detective, sent out here by the London office."
"You, a detective?"
"I will prove it. Here is my commission."
Passepartout was speechless with astonishment when Fix displayed thisdocument, the genuineness of which could not be doubted.
"Mr. Fogg's wager," resumed Fix, "is only a pretext, of which you andthe gentlemen of the Reform are dupes. He had a motive for securingyour innocent complicity."
"But why?"
"Listen. On the 28th of last September a robbery of fifty-fivethousand pounds was committed at the Bank of England by a person whosedescription was fortunately secured. Here is his description; itanswers exactly to that of Mr. Phileas Fogg."
"What nonsense!" cried Passepartout, striking the table with his fist."My master is the most honourable of men!"
"How can you tell? You know scarcely anything about him. You wentinto his service the day he came away; and he came away on a foolishpretext, without trunks, and carrying a large amount in banknotes. Andyet you are bold enough to assert that he is an honest man!"
"Yes, yes," repeated the poor fellow, mechanically.
"Would you like to be arrested as his accomplice?"
Passepartout, overcome by what he had heard, held his head between hishands, and did not dare to look at the detective. Phileas Fogg, thesaviour of Aouda, that brave and generous man, a robber! And yet howmany presumptions there were against him! Passepartout essayed toreject the suspicions which forced themselves upon his mind; he did notwish to believe that his master was guilty.
"Well, what do you want of me?" said he, at last, with an effort.
"See here," replied Fix; "I have tracked Mr. Fogg to this place, but asyet I have failed to receive the warrant of arrest for which I sent toLondon. You must help me to keep him here in Hong Kong--"
"I! But I--"
"I will share with you the two thousand pounds reward offered by theBank of England."
"Never!" replied Passepartout, who tried to rise, but fell back,exhausted in mind and body.
"Mr. Fix," he stammered, "even should what you say be true--if mymaster is really the robber you are seeking for--which I deny--I havebeen, am, in his service; I have seen his generosity and goodness; andI will never betray him--not for all the gold in the world. I comefrom a village where they don't eat that kind of bread!"
"You refuse?"
"I refuse."
"Consider that I've said nothing," said Fix; "and let us drink."
"Yes; let us drink!"
Passepartout felt himself yielding more and more to the effects of theliquor. Fix, seeing that he must, at all hazards, be separated fromhis master, wished to entirely overcome him. Some pipes full of opiumlay upon the table. Fix slipped one into Passepartout's hand. He tookit, put it between his lips, lit it, drew several puffs, and his head,becoming heavy under the influence of the narcotic, fell upon the table.
"At last!" said Fix, seeing Passepartout unconscious. "Mr. Fogg willnot be informed of the Carnatic's departure; and, if he is, he willhave to go without this cursed Frenchman!"
And, after paying his bill, Fix left the tavern.
