Around the World in Eighty Days. Junior Deluxe Edition

by Jules Verne

  Chapter 15

  In Which the Bag of Banknotes DisgorgesSome Thousands of Pounds More

  The train entered the station. Passepartout jumped out first,followed by Mr. Fogg, who assisted his fair companion to descend.Phileas Fogg intended to proceed at once to the Hong Kongsteamer, in order to get Aouda comfortably settled for thevoyage. He was unwilling to leave her while they were still ondangerous ground.

  Just as he was leaving the station a policeman came up to him,and said, "Mr. Phileas Fogg?"

  "I am he."

  "Is this man your servant?" added the policeman, pointing toPassepartout.

  "Yes."

  "Be so good, both of you, as to follow me."

  Mr. Fogg betrayed no surprise whatever. The policeman was arepresentative of the law, and law is sacred to an Englishman.Passepartout tried to reason about the matter, but the policemantapped him with his stick, and Mr. Fogg made him a signal toobey.

  "May this young lady go with us?" he asked. "She may," replied thepoliceman.

  Mr. Fogg, Aouda and Passepartout were conducted to a palkighari,a sort of four-wheeled carriage, drawn by two horses. They tooktheir places and were driven away. No one spoke during the twentyminutes which elapsed before they reached their destination.

  They first passed through the "black town," with its narrowstreets, its miserable, dirty huts and squalid population; thenthrough the "European town," which presented a relief in itsbright brick mansions, shaded by coconut-trees and bristling withmasts, where, although it was early morning, elegantly dressedhorsemen and handsome equipages were passing back and forth.

  The carriage stopped before a modest-looking house, which,however, did not have the appearance of a private mansion. Thepoliceman having requested his prisoners--for so, truly, theymight be called--to descend, conducted them into a room withbarred windows, and said: "You will appear before Judge Obadiahat half-past eight."

  He then retired, and closed the door.

  "Why, we are prisoners!" exclaimed Passepartout, falling into achair.

  Aouda, with an emotion she tried to conceal, said to Mr. Fogg:"Sir, you must leave me to my fate! It is on my account that youreceive this treatment. It is for having saved me!"

  Phileas Fogg contented himself with saying that it wasimpossible. It was quite unlikely that he should be arrested forpreventing a suttee. The complainants would not dare presentthemselves with such a charge. There was some mistake. Moreover,he would not, in any event, abandon Aouda, but would escort herto Hong Kong.

  "But the steamer leaves at noon!" observed Passepartout,nervously.

  "We shall be on board by noon," replied his master, placidly. Itwas said so positively that Passepartout could not help mutteringto himself, "Parbleu that's certain! Before noon we shall be onboard." But he was by no means reassured.

  At half-past eight the door opened, the policeman appeared, and,requesting them to follow him, led the way to an adjoining hall.It was evidently a courtroom, and a crowd of Europeans andnatives already occupied the rear of the apartment.

  Mr. Fogg and his two companions took their places on a benchopposite the desks of the magistrate and his clerk. Immediatelyafter, Judge Obadiah, a fat, round man, followed by the clerk,entered. He proceeded to take down a wig which was hanging on anail, and put it hurriedly on his head.

  "The first case," he said. Then, putting his hand to his head, heexclaimed, "Heh! This is not my wig!"

  "No, your worship," returned the clerk, "it is mine."

  "My dear Mr. Oysterpuff, how can a judge give a wise sentence ina clerk's wig?"

  The wigs were exchanged.

  Passepartout was getting nervous, for the hands on the face ofthe big clock over the judge seemed to go around with terriblerapidity.

  "The first case," repeated Judge Obadiah.

  "Phileas Fogg?" demanded Oysterpuff.

  "I am here," replied Mr. Fogg.

  "Passepartout?"

  "Present," responded Passepartout.

  "Good," said the judge. "You have been looked for, prisoners, fortwo days on the trains from Bombay."

  "But of what are we accused?" asked Passepartout, impatiently.

  "You are about to be informed."

  "I am an English subject, sir," said Mr. Fogg, "and I have theright--"

  "Have you been ill-treated?"

  "Not at all."

  "Very well. Let the complainants come in."

  A door was swung open by order of the judge, and three Indianpriests entered.

  "That's it," muttered Passepartout. "These are the rogues whowere going to burn our young lady."

  The priests took their places in front of the judge, and theclerk proceeded to read in a loud voice a complaint of sacrilegeagainst Phileas Fogg and his servant, who were accused of havingviolated a place held consecrated by the Brahmin religion.

  "You hear the charge?" asked the judge.

  "Yes, sir," replied Mr. Fogg, consulting his watch, "and I admitit."

  "You admit it?"

  "I admit it, and I wish to hear these priests admit, in theirturn, what they were going to do at the pagoda of Pillaji."

  The priests looked at each other. They did not seem to understandwhat was said.

  "Yes," cried Passepartout, warmly; "at the pagoda of Pillaji,where they were on the point of burning their victim."

  The judge stared with astonishment, and the priests werestupefied.

  "What victim?" said Judge Obadiah. "Burn whom? In Bombay itself?"

  "Bombay?" cried Passepartout.

  "Certainly, we are not talking of the pagoda of Pillaji, but ofthe pagoda of Malabar Hill, at Bombay."

  "And as a proof," added the clerk, "here are the desecrator'svery shoes, which he left behind him."

  Whereupon he placed a pair of shoes on his desk.

  "My shoes!" cried Passepartout, in his surprise permitting thisimprudent exclamation to escape him.

  The confusion of master and man, who had quite forgotten theaffair at Bombay, for which they were now detained at Calcutta,may be imagined.

  Fix, the detective, had foreseen the advantage whichPassepartout's escapade gave him, and, delaying his departure fortwelve hours, had consulted the priests of Malabar Hill. Knowingthat the English authorities dealt very severely with this kindof misdemeanor, he promised them a goodly sum in damages, andsent them forward to Calcutta by the next train. Owing to thedelay caused by the rescue of the young widow, Fix and thepriests reached the Indian capital before Mr. Fogg and hisservant. The magistrates had been already warned by a despatch toarrest them should they arrive. Fix's disappointment when helearned that Phileas Fogg had not made his appearance in Calcuttamay be imagined. He made up his mind that the robber had stoppedsomewhere on the route and taken refuge in the southernprovinces. For twenty-four hours Fix watched the station withfeverish anxiety. At last he was rewarded by seeing Mr. Fogg andPassepartout arrive, accompanied by a young woman, whosepresence he was wholly at a loss to explain. He hastened for apoliceman, and this was how the party came to be arrested andbrought before Judge Obadiah.

  Had Passepartout been a little less preoccupied, he would haveseen the detective settled in a corner of the courtroom, watchingthe proceedings with an interest easily understood; for thewarrant had failed to reach him at Calcutta, as it had done atBombay and Suez.

  Judge Obadiah had unfortunately caught Passepartout's rashexclamation, which the poor fellow would have given the world torecall.

  "The facts are admitted?" asked the judge.

  "Admitted," replied Mr. Fogg, coldly.

  "Inasmuch," resumed the judge, "as the English law protectsequally and sternly the religions of the Indian people, and asthe man Passepartout has admitted that he violated the sacredpagoda of Malabar Hill, at Bombay, on the 20th of October, Icondemn the said Passepartout to imprisonment for fifteen daysand a fine of three hundred pounds."

  "Three hundred pounds!" cried Passepartout, startled at thelargeness of the sum.

  "Silence!"
shouted the constable.

  "And inasmuch," continued the judge, "as it is not proved thatthe act was not done by the connivance of the master with theservant, and as the master in any case must be held responsiblefor the acts of his paid servant, I condemn Phileas Fogg to aweek's imprisonment and a fine of one hundred and fifty pounds."

  Fix rubbed his hands softly with satisfaction. If Phileas Foggcould be detained in Calcutta a week, it would be more than timefor the warrant to arrive. Passepartout was stupefied. Thissentence ruined his master. A wager of twenty thousand poundslost, because he, like a precious fool, had gone into thatabominable pagoda!

  Phileas Fogg, as self-composed as if the judgment did not in theleast concern him, did not even lift his eyebrows while it wasbeing pronounced. Just as the clerk was calling the next case, herose, and said, "I offer bail."

  "You have that right," returned the judge. Fix's blood ran cold,but he resumed his composure when he heard the judge announcethat the bail required for each prisoner would be one thousandpounds.

  "I will pay it at once," said Mr. Fogg, taking a roll of bankbills from the carpetbag, which Passepartout had by him, andplacing them on the clerk's desk.

  "This sum will be restored to you upon your release fromprison," said the judge. "Meanwhile, you are liberated on bail."

  "Come!" said Phileas Fogg to his servant.

  "But let them at least give me back my shoes!" cried Passepartoutangrily.

  "Ah, these are pretty dear shoes!" he muttered, as they werehanded to him. "More than a thousand pounds apiece. Besides,they pinch my feet."

  Mr. Fogg, offering his arm to Aouda, then departed, followed bythe crestfallen Passepartout. Fix still nourished hopes that therobber would not, after all, leave the two thousand pounds behindhim, but would decide to serve out his week in jail, and issuedforth on Mr. Fogg's traces. That gentleman took a carriage, andthe party were soon landed on one of the quays.

  The Rangoon was moored half a mile off in the harbor. Its signalof departure was hoisted at the masthead. Eleven o'clock wasstriking. Mr. Fogg was an hour in advance of time. Fix saw themleave the carriage and push off in a boat for the steamer, andstamped his feet with disappointment.

  "The rascal is off, after all!" he exclaimed. "Two thousandpounds sacrificed! He's as prodigal as a thief! I'll follow himto the end of the world if necessary; but, at the rate he isgoing on, the stolen money will soon be exhausted."

  The detective was not far wrong in making this conjecture. Sinceleaving London, what with traveling expenses, bribes, thepurchase of the elephant, bails and fines, Mr. Fogg had alreadyspent more than five thousand pounds on the way, and thepercentage of the sum recovered from the bank robber, promised tothe detectives, was rapidly diminishing.