Kitabı oku: «Вокруг света за 80 дней / Around the World in Eighty Days», sayfa 5
“Didn’t you forget anything?” asked he.
“Nothing, monsieur.”
“Good! Take this carpet-bag. There are twenty thousand pounds in it.”
They then descended, and at the end of Saville Row they took a cab and drove rapidly toCharing Cross43. The cab stopped before the railway station at twenty minutes past eight. Passepartout followed his master, who was ready to enter the station, when a poor beggar-woman, with a child in her arms, approached, and mournfully asked for alms.
Mr. Fogg took out the twenty guineas and handed them to the beggar,
“Here, my good woman. I’m glad that I met you.”
Passepartout saw it; his master’s action touched his susceptible heart. Mr. Fogg bought two first-class tickets for Paris, and then perceived his five friends of the Reform.
“Well, gentlemen,” said he, “I go, you see; and you will be able to examine my passport when I get back.”
“Oh, that would be quite unnecessary, Mr. Fogg,” said Ralph politely. “We will trust your word.”
“You do not forget when you are in London again?” asked Stuart.
“In eighty days; on Saturday, the 21st of December, 1872, at a quarter before nine p.m. Good-bye, gentlemen.”
Phileas Fogg and his servant sat in a first-class carriage at twenty minutes before nine. Five minutes later the whistle screamed, and the train slowly glided out of the station.
Chapter V
Phileas Fogg did not suspect that his departure from London created a lively sensation at theWest End44. The news of the bet soon got into the papers throughout England. They talked, disputed, argued about his “tour of the world”. Many people shook their heads and declared against him. It was absurd, impossible – in this minimum of time! People in general thought him a lunatic, and blamed his Reform Club friends for this wager.
A few readers of the Daily Telegraph even dared to say, “Why not, after all? Stranger things happened.” Everybody knows that to bet is in the English temperament. Not only the members of the Reform, but the general public, made wagers for or against Phileas Fogg. He became a race-horse. But everybody was against Fogg, and the bets stood a hundred and fifty and two hundred to one.
A week after his departure an incident occurred. The commissioner of police was in his office at nine o’clock one evening, when the following telegraphic dispatch arrived:
“Suez to London.
Rowan, Commissioner of Police,Scotland Yard45:
I found the bank robber, Phileas Fogg. Send with out delaywarrant of arrest46 to Bombay.
Fix, Detective”.
The effect of this dispatch was instantaneous. The polished gentleman disappeared to give place to the bank robber. The mysterious habits of Phileas Fogg were recalled; his solitary ways, his sudden departure.
