Works of Jules Verne/Round the World in Eighty Days/Chapter 24
CHAPTER XXIV
DURING WHICH IS ACCOMPLISHED THE VOYAGE ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN
What had happened in sight of Shanghai is understood. The signals made by the Tankadere had been observed by the Yokohama steamer. The captain, seeing a flag at halfmast, had turned his vessel towards the little schooner. A few minutes after, Phileas Fogg, paying for his passage at the price agreed upon, put in the pocket of John Bunsby, master, five hundred and fifty pounds. Then the honorable gentleman, Aouda, and Fix ascended to the deck of the steamer, which immediately took its course for Nagasaki and Yokohama.
Having arrived on the morning of the 14th of November, on time, Phileas Fogg, letting Fix go about his business, had gone aboard the Carnatic, and there he learned, to the great joy of Aouda—and perhaps to his own, but he did not let it appear—that the Frenchman, Passepartout, had really arrived the day before at Yokohama.
Phileas Fogg, who was to start again the same evening for San Francisco, sent immediately in search of his servant. He inquired in vain of the French and English consular agents, and after uselessly running through the streets of Yokohama, he despaired of finding Passepartout again, when chance, or perhaps a sort of presentiment, made him enter the theater of the Honorable Batulcar. He would certainly not have recognized his servant under this eccentric mountebank dress; but the latter, lying on his back, saw his master in the gallery. He could not restrain a movement of his nose. Thence a breaking of the equilibrium and what followed.
This is what Passepartout learned from Aouda's mouth, who told him then how the voyage had been made from Hong Kong to Yokohama, in company of a Mr. Fix, on the schooner Tankadere.
At the name of Fix, Passepartout did not change countenance. He thought that the time had not come to tell his master what had passed between the detective and himself. Thus, in the story which Passepartout told of his adventures, he only accused and excused himself of having been overcome by the intoxication of opium in a smoking house in Hong Kong.
Mr. Fogg listened coldly to this narrative, without replying; then he opened for his servant a credit sufficient for him to procure on board more suitable garments. And, indeed, an hour had not passed, when the good fellow, having cut off his nose and shed his wings, had nothing more about him which recalled the sectary of the god Tingou.
The steamer making the voyage from Yokohama to San Francisco belonged to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and was named the General Grant. She was a large sidewheel steamer of two thousand five hundred tons, well equipped and of great speed. The General Grant was rigged as a three-masted schooner, and she had a large surface of sails, which aided her steam power materially. By making twelve miles an hour the steamer would only need twenty days to cross the Pacific. Phileas Fogg then had good reasons for believing that, landed at San Francisco on the 3d of December, he would be in New York on the 11th, and in London on the 20th, thus gaining some hours on the fatal date of the 21st of December.
The passengers aboard the steamer were quite numerous—some Englishmen, many Americans, a genuine emigration of coolies to America, and a certain number of officers of the Indian army, who made use of their leave of absence by making the tour of the world.
During this voyage there was no nautical incident. The steamer, borne up on its large wheels, supported by its large amount of canvas, rolled but little. The Pacific Ocean justified its name sufficiently. Mr. Fogg was as calm and non-communicative as usual. His young companion felt herself more and more attached to this man by other ties than those of gratitude. This silent nature, so generous in short, made a greater impression upon her than she thought, and almost unknown to herself she allowed herself to have feelings which did not seem to affect in any way the enigmatic Fogg.
Besides, Aouda was very much interested in the gentleman's plans. She was uneasy at the retarding circum- stances which might prevent the success of the tour. She frequently talked with Passepartout, who readily detected the feelings of Aouda's heart. This good fellow had the most implicit faith with regard to his master; he did not exhaust his praises of the honesty, the generosity, the devotion of Phileas Fogg; then he reassured Aouda as to the issue of the voyage, repeating that the most difficult part was done, that they had left the fantastic countries of China and Japan, that they were returning to civilized countries, and finally, that a train from San Francisco to New York, and a transatlantic steamer from New York to Liverpool, would be sufficient, doubtless, to finish this impossible tour of the world in the time agreed upon.
Nine days after leaving Yokohama, Phileas Fogg had traversed exactly the half of the terrestrial globe.
In fact, the General Grant, on the 23d of November, passed the one hundred and eightieth meridian, upon which in the southern hemisphere are to be found the antipodes of London. It is true that of the eighty days at his disposal he had used fifty-two, and there only remained to him twenty-eight to be consumed. But we must notice that if the gentleman only found himself half way round by the difference of meridians, he had really accomplished more than two-thirds of its entire course. Indeed, what forced detours from London to Aden, from Aden to Bombay, from Calcutta to Singapore, from Singapore to Yokohama! By following around the fiftieth parallel, which is that of London, the distance would have been but about twelve thousand miles, whilst Phileas Fogg was compelled, by the caprices of the means of locomotion, to travel over twenty-six thousand, of which he had already made about seventeen thousand five hundred, at this date, the 23d of November. But now the route was a straight one, and Fix was no longer there to accumulate obstacles.
It happened also that on this 23d of November, Passepartout made quite a joyful discovery. It will be recollected that the obstinate fellow had insisted on keeping London time with his famous family watch, deeming incorrect the time of the various countries that he traversed. Now this day, although he had neither put his watch forward or back, it agreed with the ship's chronometers.
The triumph of Passepartout may be comprehended. He would have liked to know what Fix would have said if he had been present.
"The rogue who told me a heap of stories about the meridians, the sun and the moon!" said Passepartout. "Pshaw! if one listened to that sort of people, we would have a nice sort of clocks and watches! I was very sure that one day or another, the sun would decide to regulate itself by my watch!"
Passepartout was ignorant of this: that if the face of his watch had been divided into twenty-four hours like the Italian clocks, he would have had no reason for triumph, for the hands of his watch, when it was 9 o'clock in the morning on the vessel, would have indicated 9 o'clock in the evening, that is, the twenty-first hour after midnight—a difference precisely equal to that which exists between London and the one hundred and eightieth meridian.
But if Fix had been capable of explaining this purely physical effect, Passepartout, doubtless, would have been incapable, if not of understanding it, at least of admitting it. And in any event, if the impossible thing should occur that the detective would unexpectedly show himself aboard at this moment, it is probable that Passepartout would have spitefully talked with him on quite a different subject, and in quite a different manner.
Now, where was Fix at this moment?
He was actually on board the General Grant. In fact, on arriving at Yokohama the detective, leaving Mr. Fogg, whom he thought he would see again during the day, had immediately gone to the English Consul's. There he finally found the warrant of arrest, which, running after him from Bombay, was already forty days old, which had been sent to him from Hong Kong on the very Carnatic on board of which he was supposed to be. The detective's disappointment may be imagined! The warrant was useless! Mr. Fogg had left the English possessions! An order of extradition was now necessary to arrest him!
"Let it be so!" said Fix to himself, after the first moment of anger. "My warrant is no longer good here; it will be in England. This rogue has the appearance of returning to his native country believing that he has thrown the police off their guard. Well, I will follow him there. As for the money, heaven grant there may be some left! But what with traveling, rewards, trials, fines, elephants, expenses of every kind, my man has already left more than five thousand pounds on his route. After all, the Bank is rich!"
His decision taken, he immediately went on board the General Grant, and was there when Mr. Fogg and Aouda arrived. To his extreme surprise, he recognized Passepartout under his fantastic costume. He concealed himself immediately in his cabin, to avoid an explanation which might damage everything—and, thanks to the number of the passengers, he counted on not being seen by his enemy, when this very day he found himself face to face with him on the forward part of the ship.
Passepartout jumped at Fix's throat, without any other explanation, and to the great delight of certain Americans, who immediately bet for him, he gave the unfortunate detective a superb volley of blows, showing the great superiority of French over English boxing.
When Passepartout had finished he found himself calmer and comforted. Fix rose in pretty bad condition, and, looking at his adversary, he said to him coldly, "Is it finished?"
"Yes, for the moment."
"Then I want a word with you."
"But I———"
"In your master's interest."
Passepartout, as if conquered by this coolness, followed the detective, and they both sat down in the forward part of the steamer. "You have thrashed me," said Fix. Good; I expected it. Now, listen to me. Until the present I have been Mr. Fogg's adversary, but now I am with him."
"At last!" cried Passepartout, "you believe him to be an honest man?"
"No," replied Fix coldly. "I believe him to be a rogue. Sh! Don't stir, and let me talk. As long as Mr. Fogg was in the English possessions, I had an interest in retaining him whilst waiting for a warrant of arrest. I did everything I could for that. I sent against him the priests of Bombay, I made you drunk at Hong Kong, I separated you from your master, I made him miss the Yokohama steamer."
Passepartout listened with clenched fists.
"Now," continued Fix, "Mr. Fogg seems to be returning to England? Well, I will follow him there. But henceforth it shall be my aim to clear the obstacles from his path as zealously and carefully as before I took pains to accumulate them. You see, my game is changed, and it is changed because my interest desires it. I add, that your interest is similar to mine, for you will only know in England whether you are in the service of a criminal or an honest man!"
Passepartout listened to Fix very attentively and he was convinced that the latter spoke with entire good faith.
"Are we friends?" asked Fix.
"Friends, no," replied Passepartout; "allies, yes; and under this condition that, at the least appearance of treason, I will twist your neck."
"Agreed," said the detective, quietly.
Eleven days after, on the 3d of December, the General Grant entered the bay of the Golden Gate, and arrived at San Francisco. Mr. Fogg had neither gained nor lost a single day.