Works of Jules Verne/Round the World in Eighty Days/Chapter 16
CHAPTER XVI
IN WHICH FIX HAS NOT THE APPEARANCE OF KNOWING ANYTHING ABOUT THE MATTERS CONCERNING WHICH THEY TALK TO HIM
The Rangoon, one of the vessels employed by the Peninsular and Oriental Company in the Chinese and Japanese seas, was an iron screw steamer, of seventeen hundred and seventy tons, and nominally of four hundred horse-power. She was equally swift, but not so comfortable as the Mongolia. Aouda was not as well fixed in her as Phileas Fogg would have desired. But, after all, it was only a distance of three thousand five hundred miles, and the young woman did not show herself a troublesome passenger.
During the first few days of the passage Aouda became better acquainted with Phileas Fogg. On every occasion she showed him the liveliest gratitude. The phlegmatic gentleman listened to her, at least in appearance, with the most extreme indifference, not one tone of his voice or gesture betraying in him the slightest emotion. He saw that she was wanting in nothing. At certain hours he came regularly, if not to talk with her, at least to listen to her. He fulfilled toward her the duties of the strictest politeness, but with the grace and startling effects of an automaton whose movements had been put together for that purpose. Aouda did not know what to think of him, but Passepartout had explained to her a little the eccentric character of his master. He had told her what sort of a wager was taking him round the world. Aouda had smiled; but, after all, she owed her life to him, and her deliverer could not lose, because she saw him through her gratitude.
Aouda confirmed the narrative of the guide in reference to her affecting history. She belonged, in fact, to the race which occupies the first rank among the natives. Several Parsee merchants have made large fortunes in India in the cotton trade. One of them, Sir James Jejeebhoy, was raised to the nobility by the English Government, and Aouda was a relative of this rich person, who lived in Bombay. It was indeed a cousin of Sir Jejeebhoy, the honorable Jejeeh, whom she counted on joining at Hong Kong. Would she find a refuge with him and assistance? She could not say so positively. To which Mr. Fogg replied that she should not be uneasy, and everything would be mathematically arranged. That was the phrase he used.
Did the young woman understand this horrible adverb? We do not know. However, her large eyes were fixed upon those of Mr. Fogg—her large eyes "clear as the sacred lakes of the Himalaya!" But the intractable Fogg, as reserved as ever, did not seem to be the man to throw himself into this lake.
The first part of the Rangoon's voyage was accomplished under excellent conditions. The weather was moderate. All the lower portion of the immense Bay of Bengal was favorable to the steamer's progress. The Rangoon soon sighted the great Andaman, the principal one of the group of islands, which is distinguished by navigators at a great distance by the picturesque Saddle Peak mountain, two thousand four hundred feet high.
The panoramic development of this island was superb. Immense forests of palm trees, arecas, bamboo, nutmeg trees, teak-wood, giant mimosas, and tree-like ferns covered the country in the foreground, and in the background there stood out in relief the graceful outline of the mountains. Along the shore there swarmed by thousands those precious swallows whose eatable nests form a dish much sought for in the celestial empire. But all this varied spectacle offered to the eyes by the Andaman group passed quickly, and the Rangoon swiftly pursued her way towards the straits of Malacca, which were to give her access to the Chinese seas.
During this trip what was detective Fix doing, so unluckily dragged into a voyage round the world? On leaving Calcutta, after having left instructions to forward the warrant to him at Hong Kong, if it should arrive, he succeeded in getting aboard the Rangoon without being perceived by Passepartout, and he hoped that he might conceal his presence until the arrival of the steamer. In fact, it would have been difficult for him to explain how he was on board without awaking the suspicions of Passepartout, who thought he was in Bombay. But he was led to renew his acquaintance with the good fellow by the very logic of circumstances. How? We shall see.
All the hopes, all the desires of the detective were now concentrated on a single point in the world, Hong Kong—for the steamer would stop too short a time in Singapore for him to operate in that city. The arrest of the robber must then be made in Hong Kong, or he would escape irrecoverably.
In fact, Hong Kong was still English soil, but the last he would find on the road. Beyond, China, Japan, America would offer a pretty certain refuge to Mr. Fogg. At Hong Kong, if he should finally find there the warrant of arrest, which was evidently running after him, Fix would arrest Fogg, and put him in the hands of the local police. No difficulty there. But after Hong Kong a simple warrant of arrest would not be sufficient. An extradition order would be necessary. Thence delays and obstacles of every kind, of which the rogue would take advantage to escape finally. If he failed at Hong Kong, it would be, if not impossible, at least very difficult to attempt it again with any chance of success.
"Then," repeated Fix during the long hours that he passed in his cabin, "then, either the warrant will be at Hong Kong and I will arrest my man, or it will not be there, and this time I must, at all hazards, delay his departure! I have failed at Bombay, I have failed at Calcutta! If I miss at Hong Kong, I shall lose my reputation! Cost what it may, I must succeed. But what means shall I employ to delay, if it is necessary, the departure of this accursed Phileas Fogg?"
As a last resort, Fix had decided to tell everything to Passepartout, to let him know who the master was that he was serving, and whose accomplice he certainly was not. Passepartout, enlightened by this revelation, fearing to be compromised, would without doubt take sides with him, Fix. But it was a very hazardous means, which could only be employed in default of any other. One word from Passepartout to his master would have been sufficient to compromise the affair irrevocably.
The detective was then extremely embarrassed when the presence of Aouda on board of the Rangoon, in company with Phileas Fogg, opened new perspectives to him.
Who was this woman? What combination of circumstances had made her Fogg's companion? The meeting had evidently taken place between Bombay and Calcutta. But at what point of the peninsula? Was it chance which had brought together Phileas Fogg and the young traveler? Had not this journey across India, on the contrary, been undertaken by this gentleman with the aim of joining this charming person? For she was charming! Fix had had a good view of her in the audience hall of the Calcutta tribunal.
It may be comprehended to what a point the detective would be entangled. He asked himself if there was not a criminal abduction in this affair. Yes! that must be it! This idea once fastened in the mind of Fix, and he recognized all the advantage that he could get from this circumstance. Whether this young woman was married or not, there was an abduction, and it was possible to put the ravisher in such embarrassment in Hong Kong that he could not extricate himself by paying money.
But it was not necessary to await the arrival of the Rangoon at Hong Kong. This Fogg had the detestable habit of jumping from one vessel into another and before the affair was entered upon he might be far enough off. The important thing was to warn the English authorities, and to signal the Rangoon before her arrival. Now, nothing would be easier to accomplish, as the steamer would put in at Singapore, which is connected with the Chinese coast by a telegraph line.
But, before acting, and to be more certain, Fix determined to question Passepartout. He knew it was not very difficult to start the young man talking, and he decided to throw off the incognito that he had maintained until that time. Now there was no time to lose. It was October 31, and the next day the Rangoon would drop anchor at Singapore.
This very day, October 30, Fix, leaving his cabin, went upon deck, with the intention of meeting Passepartout first, with signs of the greatest surprise. Passepartout was walking in the forward part of the vessel when the detective rushed toward him exclaiming, "Is this you, on the Rangoon?"
"Monsieur Fix aboard!" replied Passepartout, very much surprised, recognizing his old acquaintance of the Mongolia.
"What! I left you at Bombay, and I meet you again on the route to Hong Kong! Are you making also the tour of the world?"
"No, no," replied Fix. "I expect to stop at Hong Kong, at least for a few days."
"Ah!" said Passepartout, who seemed astonished for a moment. "But why have I not seen you aboard since we left Calcutta?"
"Indeed, I was sick—a little sea-sickness—I remained lying down in my cabin—I did not get along as well in the Bay of Bengal as in the Indian Ocean. And your master, Phileas Fogg?"
"Is in perfect health, and as punctual as his diary! Not one day behind! Ah! Monsieur Fix, you do not know it, but we have a young lady with us also."
"A young lady?" replied the detective, who acted exactly as if he did not understand what his companion was saying.
But Passepartout soon gave him the thread of the whole story. He related the incident of the pagoda in Bombay, the purchase of the elephant at the cost of two thousand pounds, the suttee affair, the abduction of Aouda, the sentence of the Calcutta court, and their freedom under bail. Fix, who knew the last portion of these incidents, seemed not to know any of them, and Passepartout gave himself up to the pleasure of telling his adventures to a hearer who showed so much interest.
"But," asked Fix at the end of the story, "does your master intend to take this young woman to Europe?"
"Not at all, Monsieur Fix; not at all! We are simply going to put her in charge of one of her relatives, a rich merchant of Hong Kong."
"Nothing to be done there," said the detective to himself, concealing his disappointment. Take a glass of gin, Mr. Passepartout."
"With pleasure, Monsieur Fix. It is the least that we should drink to our meeting aboard the Rangoon."