"But, Mr. Fogg, this period of eighty days is calculated only as a minimum of time?"
"A minimum well employed sufficies for everything," replied Mr. Fogg.
"But in order not to exceed it, you must jump mathematically from the trains into the steamers, and from the steamers upon the trains!"
"I will jump mathematically."
"That is a joke!"
"A good Englishman never jokes, when so serious a matter as a wager is in question," replied Phileas Fogg. "I bet twenty thousand pounds against who will that I will make the tour of the world in eighty days or less—that is, nineteen hundred and twenty hours or one hundred and fifteen thousand two hundred minutes. Do you accept?"
"We accept," replied Messrs. Stuart, Fallentin, Sullivan, Flanagan, and Ralph, after having consulted.
"Very well," said Mr. Fogg. ""The Dover train starts at eight forty-five. I shall take it."
"This very evening?" asked Stuart.
"This very evening," replied Phileas Fogg. Then he added, consulting a pocket almanac, "Since to-day is Wednesday, the second of October, I ought to be back in London, in this very saloon of the Reform Club, on Saturday, the twenty-first of December, at eight forty-five in the evening, in default of which the twenty thousand pounds at present deposited to my credit with Baring Brothers will belong to you, gentlemen, in fact and by right. Here is a check of like amount."
A memorandum of the wager was made and signed on the spot by the six parties in interest. Phileas Fogg had remained cool. He had certainly not bet to win, and had risked only these twenty thousand pounds—the half of his fortune—because he foresaw that he might have to expend the other half to carry out this difficult, not to say impracticable, project. As for his opponents they seemed affected, not on account of the stake, but because they had a sort of scruple against a contest under these conditions.
Seven o'clock then struck. They offered to Mr. Fogg to stop playing, so that he could make his preparations for departure.
