Works of Jules Verne/Round the World in Eighty Days/Chapter 29
CHAPTER XXIX
IN WHICH CERTAIN INCIDENTS ARE RELATED, ONLY TO BE MET WITH ON THE RAILROADS OF THE UNITED STATES
That same evening the train continued its course without obstructions, passed Fort Sanders, crossed the Cheyenne Pass and arrived at Evans Pass. At this point, the railroad reached the highest point on the route, i e., eight thousand and ninety-one feet above the level of the ocean. The travelers now only had to descend to the Atlantic over those boundless plains, leveled by nature.
There was the branch from the "grand trunk" to Denver City, the principal town of Colorado. This territory is rich in gold and silver mines, and more than fifty thousand inhabitants have already settled there.
At this moment thirteen hundred and eighty-two miles had been made from San Francisco in three days and three nights. Four nights and four days, if nothing interfered, ought to be sufficient to reach New York. Phileas Fogg was then still within his time.
During the night they passed to the left of Camp Walbach. Lodge Pole Creek ran parallel to the road, following the straight boundary between the Territories of Wyoming and Colorado. At eleven o'clock they entered Nebraska, passing near Sedgwick, and they touched at Julesburg, on the South Fork of the Platte River.
It was at this point that the Union Pacific Road was inaugurated on the 23d of October, 1867, by its chief engineer, General G. M. Dodge. There stopped the two powerful locomotives, drawing the nine cars of invited guests, prominent among whom was the Vice-President of the road, Thomas C. Durant; three cheers were given; there the Sioux and Pawnees gave an imitation Indian battle; there the fireworks were set off; there, finally, was struck off by means of a portable printing press the first number of the Railway Pioneer. Thus was celebrated the inauguration of this great railroad, an instrument of progress and civilization, thrown across the desert, and destined to bind together towns and cities not yet in existence. The whistle of the locomotive, more powerful than the lyre of Amphion, was soon to make them rise from the American soil.
At eight o'clock in the morning Fort McPherson was left behind. Three hundred and fifty-seven miles separate this point from Omaha. The railroad followed, on its left bank, the capricious windings of the South Fork of Platte river. At nine o'clock they arrived at the important town of North Platte, built between the two arms of the main stream, which join each other around it, forming a single artery—a large tributary—whose waters mingle with those of the Missouri a little above Omaha.
The one hundred and first meridian was passed.
Mr. Fogg and his partner had resumed their play. Neither of them complained of the length of the route—not even the dummy. Mr. Fix had won a few guineas at first, which he was in a fair way to lose, but he was not less deeply interested than Mr. Fogg. During this morning chance singularly favored this gentleman. Trumps and honors were showered into his hands. At a certain moment, after having made a bold combination, he was about to play a spade, when behind the seat a voice was heard, saying, "I should play a diamond."
Mr. Fogg, Aouda, and Fix raised their heads. Colonel Proctor was near them.
Stamp Proctor and Phileas Fogg recognized each other at once.
"Ah, it is you, Englishman," cried the colonel: "it's you who is going to play a spade."
"And who plays it," replied Phileas Fogg coldly, laying down a ten of that color.
"Well, it suits me to have it diamonds," replied Colonel Proctor, in an irritated voice.
And he made a motion as if to pick up the card played, adding, "You don't understand anything of this game."
"Perhaps I will be more skillful at another," said Phileas Fogg, rising.
"You have only to try it, son of John Bull!" replied the coarse fellow.
Aouda became pale. All the blood went to her heart. She seized Phileas Fogg's arm, and he gently repulsed her. Passepartout was ready to throw himself on, looking at his adversary with the most insulting air. But Fix had risen, and going to Colonel Proctor, said to him, "You forget that you have me to deal with; me whom you have not only insulted, but struck!"
"Mr. Fix," said Mr. Fogg, "I beg your pardon, but it concerns me alone. In insisting that I was wrong in playing a spade, the colonel has insulted me anew, and he shall give me satisfaction."
"When you will, and where you will," replied the American, "and with whatever weapon you please!"
Aouda tried in vain to restrain Mr. Fogg. The detective uselessly endeavored to take up the quarrel on his own account. Passepartout wanted to throw the colonel out of the door, but a sign from his master stopped him. Phileas Fogg went out of the car, and the American followed him on the platform.
"Sir," said Mr. Fogg to his adversary, "I am very much in a hurry to return to Europe, and any delay whatever would be very prejudicial to my interests."
"Well! what does that concern me?" replied Colonel Proctor.
"Sir," replied Mr. Fogg, very politely, "after our meeting in San Francisco, I formed the plan to come back to America to find you, as soon as I had completed the business which calls me to the Old World."
"Truly!"
"Will you appoint a meeting with me in six months?"
"Why not in six years?"
"I say six months," replied Mr. Fogg, "and I will be prompt to meet you."
"All evasions!" cried Stamp Proctor. "Immediately, or not at all."
"All right," replied Mr. Fogg. "You are going to New York?"
"No."
"To Chicago?"
"No."
"To Omaha?"
"It concerns you very little! Do you know Plum Creek station?"
"No," replied Mr. Fogg.
"It is the next station. The train will be there in an hour. It will stop ten minutes. In ten minutes we can exchange a few shots with our revolvers."
"Let it be so," replied Mr. Fogg. "I will stop at Plum Creek."
"And I believe that you will remain there!" added the American with unparalleled insolence.
"Who knows, sir?" replied Mr. Fogg, and he re-entered the car as coolly as usual.
That gentleman commenced to reassure Aouda, saying to her that blusterers were never to be feared. Then he begged Fix to act as his second in the encounter which was going to take place. Fix could not refuse, and Phileas Fogg resumed quietly his interrupted game, playing a spade with perfect serenity.
At eleven o'clock the whistle of the locomotive announced that they were near Plum Creek station. Mr. Fogg rose, and followed by Fix, he went out on the platform. Passepartout accompanied him, carrying a pair of revolvers. Aouda remained in the car, as pale as death.
At this moment the door of the next car opened, and Colonel Proctor appeared likewise upon the platform, followed by his second, a Yankee of his own stamp. But at the moment that the two adversaries were going to step off the train, the conductor ran up to them and cried: "You can't get off, gentlemen."
"Why not?" asked the Colonel.
"We are twenty minutes behind time, and the train does not stop."
"But I am going to fight a duel with this gentleman."
"I regret it," replied the conductor, "but we are going to start again immediately. Hear the bell ringing!"
The bell was ringing, and the train moved on.
"I am really very sorry, gentlemen," said the conductor. "Under any other circumstances, I could have obliged you. But, after all, since you had not the time to fight here, who hinders you from fighting while the train is in motion?"
"Perhaps that will not suit the gentleman!" said Colonel Proctor with a jeering air.
"That suits me perfectly," replied Phileas Fogg.
"Well, we are decidedly in America!" thought Passepartout, "and the conductor is a gentleman of the first order."
Having said this, he followed his master.
The two combatants and their seconds, preceded by the conductor, repaired to the rear of the train, passing through the cars. The last car was only occupied by about ten or a dozen passengers. The conductor asked them if they would be kind enough to vacate for a few moments for two gentlemen who had an affair of honor to settle.
Why not? The passengers were only too happy to be able to accommodate the two gentlemen, and they retired on the platforms. The car, fifty feet long, accommodated itself very conveniently to the purpose. The two adversaries might march on each other in the aisle, and fire at their ease. There never was a duel easier to arrange. Mr. Fogg and Colonel Proctor, each furnished with two six barreled revolvers, entered the car. Their seconds, remaining outside, shut them in. At the first whistle of the locomotive, they were to commence firing. Then after a lapse of two minutes what remained of the two gentlemen would be taken out of the car Truly, there could be nothing simpler. It was even so simple that Fix and Passepartout felt their hearts beating almost as if they would break.
They were waiting for the whistle agreed upon, when suddenly savage cries resounded. Reports accompanied them, but they did not come from the car reserved for the duelists. These reports continued, on the contrary, as far as the front, and along the whole line of the train. Cries of fright made themselves heard from the inside of the cars.
Colonel Proctor and Mr. Fogg, with their revolvers in hand, went out of the car immediately, and rushed forward where the reports and cries resounded more noisily. They understood that the train had been attacked by a band of Sioux.
It was not the first attempt of these daring Indians. More than once already they had stopped the trains. According to their habit, without waiting for the stopping of the train, rushing upon the steps to the number of a hundred, they had scaled the cars like a clown does a horse at full gallop.
These Sioux were provided with guns. Thence the reports, to which the passengers, nearly all armed, replied sharply by shots from their revolvers. At first the Indians rushed upon the engine. The engineer and fireman were half stunned with blows from their muskets. A Sioux chief, wishing to stop the train, but not knowing how to maneuver the handle of the regulator, had opened wide the steam valve instead of closing it, and the locomotive, beyond control, ran on with frightful rapidity.
At the same time, the Sioux entered the cars, they ran like enraged monkeys over the roofs, they drove in the doors and fought hand to hand with the passengers. The trunks, broken open and robbed, were thrown out of the baggage car on the road. Cries and shots did not cease.
But the passengers defended themselves courageously. Some of the cars, barricaded, sustained a siege, like real moving forts, borne on at a speed of one hundred miles an hour.
From the commencement of the attack Aouda had behaved courageously. With revolver in hand, she defended herself heroically, firing through the broken panes when some savage presented himself. About twenty Sioux, mortally wounded, fell upon the track, and the car wheels crushed like worms those that slipped onto the rails from the top of the platforms. Several passengers, severely wounded by bullets or clubs, lay upon the seats.
But an end must be put to this. This combat had lasted already for ten minutes, and could only end to the advantage of the Sioux, if the train was not stopped. In fact, Fort Kearney station was not two miles distant. There was a military post, but that passed, between Fort Kearney and the next station the Sioux would be masters of the train.
The conductor was fighting at Mr. Fogg's side, when a ball struck him and he fell. As he fell, he cried, " We are lost if the train is not stopped inside of five minutes!"
"It shall be stopped!" said Phileas Fogg, who was about to rush out of the car.
"Remain, monsieur," Passepartout cried to him. "That is my business."
Phileas Fogg had not the time to stop the courageous young man, who, opening a door without being seen by the Indians, succeeded in slipping under the car. Whilst the struggle continued, and whilst the balls were crossing each other above his head recovering his agility, his suppleness as a clown he made his way under the cars. Clinging to the chains, assisting himself by the lever of the brakes and the edges of the window sashes, climbing from one car to another with marvelous skill, he thus reached the front of the train. He had not been seen; he could not have been.
There, suspended by one hand between the baggage car and the tender, with the other he loosened the couplings; but in consequence of the traction, he would never have been able to pull out the yoking-bar if a sudden jolt of the engine had not made the bar jump out, and the train, detached, was left farther and farther behind, while the locomotive flew on with new speed.
Carried on by the force acquired, the train still rolled on for a few minutes, but the brakes were maneuvered from the inside of the cars, and the train finally stopped less than one hundred paces from Kearney Station.
The soldiers of the fort, attracted by the firing, ran hastily to the train. The Sioux did not wait for them, and before the train stopped entirely the whole band had decamped.
But when the passengers counted each other on the platform of the station, they noticed that several were missing, and among others the courageous Frenchman, whose devotion had just saved them.