tains, which had to be crossed in a palanquin or on a pony's back as far as the station of Kandallah, on the opposite slope."
"That delay would not have deranged my programme," replied Mr. Fogg. "I would have foreseen the probability of certain obstacles."
"But, Mr. Fogg," replied the general, "you are in danger of having a bad business on your hands with this young man's adventure."
Passepartout, with his feet wrapped up in his cloak, was sleeping soundly, and did not dream that they were talking about him. "The English government is extremely severe, and rightly, for this kind of trespass," continued Sir Francis. "It insists, above all things, that the religious customs of the Hindoos shall be respected, and if your servant had been taken———"
"Yes, if he had been taken, Sir Francis," replied Mr. Fogg, "he would have been sentenced, he would have undergone his punishment, and then he would have quietly returned to Europe. I do not see how this matter could have delayed his master!"
And, thereupon, the conversation stopped again. During the night, the train crossed the Ghauts, passed on to Nassik, and the next day, the 21st of October, it was hurrying across a comparatively flat country, formed by the Khandeish territory. The country, well cultivated, was strewn with small villages, above which the minaret of the pagoda took the place of the steeple of the European church. Numerous small streams, principally tributaries of the Godavery, irrigated this fertile country.
Passepartout having waked up, looked around, and could not believe that he was crossing the country of the Hindoos in a train of the Great Peninsular Railway. It appeared improbable to him. And yet there was nothing more real! The locomotive, guided by the arm of an English engineer and heated with English coal, was puffing out its smoke over plantations of cotton trees, coffee, nutmeg, clove, and red pepper. The steam twisted itself into spirals about groups of palms, between which appeared picturesque bungalows, a few viharis (a sort of abandoned monasteries), and wonderful temples enriched by the inexhaustible ornament of Indian architecture. Then immense reaches of country
