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11 - Around The World in Eighty Days - Jules Verne · Daily Sci-Fi Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven, in which Phileas Fogg secures a curious means
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  Speaker 1: of conveyance at a fabulous price. The train had started punctually.
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  Speaker 1: Among the passengers were a number of officers, government officials,
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  Speaker 1: and opium and indigo merchants whose business called them to
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  Speaker 1: the eastern coast. Passepartout rode in the same carriage with
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  Speaker 1: his master, and a third passenger occupied a seat opposite
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  Speaker 1: to them. This was Sir Francis Cromarty, one of mister
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  Speaker 1: Fogg's wist partners on the Mongolia, now on his way
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  Speaker 1: to join his corps at Benares. Sir Francis was a tall,
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  Speaker 1: fair man of fifty who had greatly distinguished himself in
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  Speaker 1: the last Sepoy Revolt. He made India his home, only
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  Speaker 1: paying brief visits to England at rare intervals, and was
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  Speaker 1: almost as familiar as a native with the customs, history
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  Speaker 1: and character of India and its people. But Phileas Fogg,
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  Speaker 1: who was not traveled but only describing a circumference, took
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  Speaker 1: no pains to inquire into these subjects. He was a
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  Speaker 1: solid body traversing at orbit around the terrestrial globe. According
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  Speaker 1: to the laws of rational mechanics. He was at this
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  Speaker 1: moment calculating in his mind the number of hours spent
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  Speaker 1: since his departure from London, and had it been in
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  Speaker 1: his nature to make a useless demonstration, would have rubbed
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  Speaker 1: his hands for satisfaction. Sir Francis Cromarty had observed the
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  Speaker 1: oddity of his traveling companion, although the only opportunity he
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  Speaker 1: had for studying him had been while he was dealing
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  Speaker 1: the cards and between two rubbers, and questioned himself whether
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  Speaker 1: a human heart really beat beneath this cold exterior, and
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  Speaker 1: whether Phileas Fogg had any sense of the beauties of nature.
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  Speaker 1: The Brigadier General was free to mentally confess that of
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  Speaker 1: all the eccentric persons he had ever met, none was
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  Speaker 1: comparable to this product of the exact sciences. Phileas Fogg
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  Speaker 1: had not concealed from Sir Francis his design of going
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  Speaker 1: round the world, nor the circumstances under which he set out,
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  Speaker 1: And the General only saw in the wager a useless
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  Speaker 1: eccentricity and a lack of sound common sense. In the
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  Speaker 1: way this strange gentleman was going on, he would leave
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  Speaker 1: the world without having done any good to himself. Or
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  Speaker 1: anybody else. An hour after leaving Bombay, the train had
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  Speaker 1: passed the viaducts and the island of Salsat and had
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  Speaker 1: got into the open country. At Calianne, they reached the
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  Speaker 1: junction of the branch line which descends towards southeastern India
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  Speaker 1: by Candala and Puna, and passing Pollwell, they entered the
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  Speaker 1: defiles of the mountains, with their basalt bases and their
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  Speaker 1: summits crowned with thick and verdant forests. Phileas Fogg and
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  Speaker 1: Sir Francis Cromarty exchanged a few words from time to time,
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  Speaker 1: and now Sir Francis, reviving the conversation observed some years ago,
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  Speaker 1: mister Fogg, you would have met with a delay at
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  Speaker 1: this point, which would probably have lost you your wager.
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  Speaker 1: How So, Sir Francis, because the railway stopped at the
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  Speaker 1: base of these mountains, which the passengers were obliged to
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  Speaker 1: cross in palanquins or on ponies, to Candallah on the
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  Speaker 1: other side, such a delay would not have deranged my
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  Speaker 1: plans in the least, said mister Fogg. I have constantly
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  Speaker 1: foreseen the likelihood of certain obstacles. But mister Fogg pursued,
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  Speaker 1: Sir Francis, you're on the risk of having some difficulty
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  Speaker 1: about this worthy fellow's adventure at the Pagoda. Passepartout his
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  Speaker 1: feet comfortably wrapped in his traveling blanket, was sound asleep
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  Speaker 1: and did not dream that anybody was talking about him.
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  Speaker 1: The government is very severe upon that kind of offense.
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  Speaker 1: It takes particular care that the religious customs of the
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  Speaker 1: Indians should be respected. And if your servant were caught,
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  Speaker 1: very well, Sir Francis replied, mister Fogg. If he had
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  Speaker 1: been caught, he would have been condemned and punished, and
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  Speaker 1: then would have quietly returned to Europe. I don't see
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  Speaker 1: how this affair could have delayed his master. The conversation
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  Speaker 1: fell again during the night. The train left the mountains
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  Speaker 1: behind and passed Nessek, and the next day proceeded over
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  Speaker 1: the flat, well cultivated country of the Candiche, with its
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  Speaker 1: straggling villages, above which rose the minarets of the Pagodas.
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  Speaker 1: This fertile territory is watered by numerous small rivers and
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  Speaker 1: limpid streams, mostly tributaries of the Godavari. Passepartout, on, waking
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  Speaker 1: and looking out could not realize that he was actually
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  Speaker 1: crossing India in a railway train. The locomotive, guided by
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  Speaker 1: an English engineer and fed with English coal, threw out
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  Speaker 1: its smoke upon cotton, coffee, nutmeg, clove and pepper plantations,
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  Speaker 1: while the steam curled in spirals round groups of palm trees,
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  Speaker 1: in the midst of which were seen picturesque bungalows, viharis,
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  Speaker 1: a sort of abandoned monasteries, and marvelous temples enriched by
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  Speaker 1: the exhaustless ornamentation of Indian architecture. Then they came upon
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  Speaker 1: vast tracks extending to the horizon, with jungles inhabited by
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  Speaker 1: snakes and tigers, which fled at the noise of the train,
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  Speaker 1: succeeded by forests penetrated by the railway, and still haunted
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  Speaker 1: by elephants, which, with pensive eyes gazed at the train
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  Speaker 1: as it passed. The travelers crossed beyond Milligaum, the fatal
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  Speaker 1: country so often stained with blood by the sectaries of
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  Speaker 1: the goddess Kali. Not far off rose Ellora, with its
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  Speaker 1: graceful pagodas, and the famous Arungabad, capital of the ferocious
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  Speaker 1: auring Zeb, now the chief town of one of the
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  Speaker 1: detached provinces of the Kingdom of the Nizam. It was
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  Speaker 1: thereabouts that Ferengia, the Thagi, chief king of the Stranglers,
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  Speaker 1: held his sway. These Ruffians, united by a secret bond,
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  Speaker 1: strangled victims of every age in honor of the Goddess Death,
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  Speaker 1: without ever shedding blood. There was a period when this
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  Speaker 1: part of the country could scarcely be traveled over without
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  Speaker 1: corpses being found in every direction. The English government had
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  Speaker 1: succeeded in greatly diminishing these murders, though the Thugis still
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  Speaker 1: exist and pursue the exercise of their horrible rights. At
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  Speaker 1: half past twelve, the trains stopped at Burhampur, where Passepartout
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  Speaker 1: was able to purchase some Indian slippers ornamented with false pearls,
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  Speaker 1: in which, with evident vanity, he proceeded to encase his feet.
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  Speaker 1: The travelers made a hasty breakfast and started off for Assergur.
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  Speaker 1: After skirting for a little the banks of the small
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  Speaker 1: river Tapti, which empties into the Gulf of Cambray near Surat,
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  Speaker 1: Passepartout was now plunged into absorbing revery. Up to his
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  Speaker 1: arrival at Bombay, he had entertained hopes that their journey
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  Speaker 1: would end there. But now that they were plainly whirling
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  Speaker 1: across India at full speed, a sudden change had come
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  Speaker 1: over the spirit of his dreams. His old vagabond nature
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  Speaker 1: returned to him, The fantastic ideas of his youth once
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  Speaker 1: more took possession of him. He came to regard his
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  Speaker 1: master's project as intended in good earnest believed in the
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  Speaker 1: reality of the bet, and therefore in the tour of
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  Speaker 1: the world and the necessity of making it without fail
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  Speaker 1: within the designated period. Already he began to worry about
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  Speaker 1: possible delays and accidents which might happen on the way.
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  Speaker 1: He recognized himself as being personally interested in the wager,
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  Speaker 1: and trembled at the thought that he might have been
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  Speaker 1: the means of losing it by his unpardonable folly of
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  Speaker 1: the night before. Being much less cool headed than mister Fogg,
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  Speaker 1: he was much more restless, counting and recounting the days
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  Speaker 1: passed over, uttering maledictions when the train stopped, and accusing
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  Speaker 1: it of sluggishness, and mentally blaming mister Fogg for not
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  Speaker 1: having bribed the engineer. The worthy fellow was ignorant that
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  Speaker 1: while it was possible by such means to hasten the
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  Speaker 1: rate of a steamer, it could not be done on
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  Speaker 1: the railway. The train entered the defiles of the set
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  Speaker 1: poor mountains which separate the Condiche from Buldukound. Towards evening
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  Speaker 1: next day, Sir Francis Cromarty asked passpartiou what time it was,
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  Speaker 1: to which, on consoling his watch, he replied that it
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  Speaker 1: was three in the morning. This famous time piece, always
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  Speaker 1: regulated on the Greenwich meridian, which was now some seventy
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  Speaker 1: seven degrees westward, was at least four hours slow. Sir
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  Speaker 1: Francis corrected Passparteu's time, whereupon the latter made the same
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  Speaker 1: remark that he had done to fix, and upon the
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  Speaker 1: General insisting that the watch should be regulated in each
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  Speaker 1: new meridian, since he was constantly going eastward, that is,
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  Speaker 1: in the face of the sun, and therefore the days
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  Speaker 1: were shorter by four minutes for each degree gone over,
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  Speaker 1: Passepartout obstinately refused to alter his watch, which he kept
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  Speaker 1: at London time. It was an innocent delusion which could
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  Speaker 1: harm no one. The train stopped at eight o'clock in
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  Speaker 1: the midst of a glade some fifteen miles beyond rou Fall,
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  Speaker 1: where there were several bungalows and workmen's cabins. The conductor,
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  Speaker 1: passing along the carriages, shouted, passengers will get out here.
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  Speaker 1: Phileas Fogg looked at Sir Francis Cromarty for an explanation,
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  Speaker 1: but the General could not tell what meant a halt
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  Speaker 1: in the midst of this forest of dates and acacias. Passepartout,
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  Speaker 1: not less surprised, rushed out and speedily returned, crying, monsieur,
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  Speaker 1: no more railway. What do you mean, asked Sir Francis.
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  Speaker 1: I mean to say that the train isn't going on.
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  Speaker 1: The General at once stepped out, while Phileas Fogg calmly
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  Speaker 1: followed him, and they proceeded together to the conductor. Where
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  Speaker 1: are we, asked Sir Francis, at the hamlet of Colby?
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  Speaker 1: Do we stop here? Certainly the railway isn't finished? What? No,
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  Speaker 1: not finished? No, there's still a matter of fifty miles
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  Speaker 1: to be laid from here to Allahabad, where the line
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  Speaker 1: begins again. But the papers announced the opening of the
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  Speaker 1: railway throughout. What would you have, officer? The papers were mistaken?
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  Speaker 1: Yet your sell tickets from Bombay to Calcutta, retorted Sir Francis,
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  Speaker 1: who was growing warm, no doubt, replied the conductor. But
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  Speaker 1: the passengers know that they must provide means of transportation
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  Speaker 1: for themselves from Colby to Allahabad. Sir Francis was furious.
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  Speaker 1: Passepartout would willingly have knocked the conductor down, and did
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  Speaker 1: not dare to look at his master. Sir Francis said
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  Speaker 1: mister Fogg quietly, we will if you please look about
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  Speaker 1: for some means of conveyance to Allahabad. Mister Fogg, this
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  Speaker 1: is a delay greatly to your disadvantage. No, Sir Francis,
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  Speaker 1: it was foreseen. What you knew that the way not
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  Speaker 1: at all? But I knew that some obstacle or other
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  Speaker 1: would sooner or later arise on my route. Nothing therefore
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  Speaker 1: is lost. I have two days, which I have already
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  Speaker 1: gained to sacrifice. A steamer leaves Calcutta for Hong Kong
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  Speaker 1: at noon on the twenty fifth. This is the twenty second,
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  Speaker 1: and we shall reach Calcutta in time. There was nothing
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  Speaker 1: to say to so confident a response. It was but
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  Speaker 1: too true that the railway came to a termination at
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  Speaker 1: this point. The papers were like some watches, which have
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  Speaker 1: a way of getting too fast and have been premature
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  Speaker 1: in their announcement of the completion of the line. The
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  Speaker 1: greater part of the travelers were aware of this interruption,
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  Speaker 1: and leaving the train, they began to engage such vehicles
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  Speaker 1: as the village could provide. Four wheeled packagarries, wagons drawn
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  Speaker 1: by zebus, carriages that looked like perambulating pagodas, palanquins, ponies
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  Speaker 1: and what not. Mister Fogg and Sir Francis Cromarty, after
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  Speaker 1: searching the village from end to end, came back without
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  Speaker 1: having found anything. I shall go afoot, said Phileas Fogg. Passepartout,
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  Speaker 1: who had now rejoined his master, made a wry grimace
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  Speaker 1: as he thought of his magnificent but too frail Indian shoes. Happily,
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  Speaker 1: he too had been looking about him, and, after a
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  Speaker 1: moment's hesitation, said monsieur, I think I have found a
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  Speaker 1: means of conveyance. What an elephant? An elephant that belongs
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  Speaker 1: to an Indian who lives but a hundred steps from here.
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  Speaker 1: Let's go and see the elephant, replied mister Fogg. They
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  Speaker 1: soon reached a small hut near which enclosed within some
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  Speaker 1: high palings was the animal in question. An Indian came
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  Speaker 1: out of the hut and at their request conducted them
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  Speaker 1: within the enclosure. The elephant, which its owner had reared
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  Speaker 1: not for a beast of burden but for warlike purposes,
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  Speaker 1: was half domesticated. The Indian had begun already by often
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  Speaker 1: irritating him and feeding him every three months on sugar
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  Speaker 1: and butter, to impart to him a ferocity not in
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  Speaker 1: his nature, this method being often employed by those who
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  Speaker 1: trained the Indian elephants for battle. Happily, however, for mister Fogg,
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  Speaker 1: the animal's instruction in this direction had not gone far,
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  Speaker 1: and the elephant still preserved his natural gentleness. Kiuni, this
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  Speaker 1: was the name of the beast, could doubtless travel rapidly
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  Speaker 1: for a long time, and in default of any other
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  Speaker 1: means of conveyance, mister Fogg resolved to hire him. But
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  Speaker 1: elephants are far from cheap in India, where they are
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  Speaker 1: become scarce. The males, which alone are suitable for circus shows,
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  Speaker 1: are much sought, especially as but few of them are domesticated.
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  Speaker 1: When therefore, mister Fogg proposed to the Indian to hire
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  Speaker 1: Kiuni he refused point blank. Mister Fogg persisted, offering the
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  Speaker 1: excessive sum of ten pounds an hour for the loan
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  Speaker 1: of the beast to Allahabad refused, twenty pounds refused. Also,
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  Speaker 1: forty pounds still refused. Passpartio jumped at each advance, but
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  Speaker 1: the Indian declined to be tempted. Yet the offer was
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  Speaker 1: an alluring one, for supposing it took the elephant fifteen
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  Speaker 1: hours to reach Allahabad, his owner would receive no less
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  Speaker 1: than six hundred pounds. Sterling Phileas Fogg, without getting in
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  Speaker 1: the least flurried, then proposed to purchase the animal outright,
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  Speaker 1: and at first offered one thousand pounds for him. The Indian,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps thinking he was going to make a great bargain,
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  Speaker 1: still refused. Sir Francis Cromarty took mister Fogg aside and
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  Speaker 1: begged him to reflect before he went any further, to
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  Speaker 1: which that gentleman replied that he was not in the
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  Speaker 1: habit of acting rashly, that a bet of twenty thousand
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  Speaker 1: pounds was at stake, but the elephant was absolutely necessary
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  Speaker 1: to him, and that he would secure him if he
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  Speaker 1: had to pay twenty times his value. Returning to the Indian,
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  Speaker 1: whose small, sharp eyes glistening with avarice, betrayed that with
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  Speaker 1: him it was only a question of how great a
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  Speaker 1: price he could obtain. Mister Fogg offered first twelve hundred,
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  Speaker 1: then fifteen hundred, eighteen hundred, two thousand pounds. Passe partout,
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  Speaker 1: usually so rubicund was fairly white with suspense. At two
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  Speaker 1: thousand pounds, the Indian yielded what the price good heavens,
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  Speaker 1: cried passepartout for an elephant. It only remained now to
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  Speaker 1: find a guide, which was comparatively easy. A young Parsi
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  Speaker 1: with an intelligent face offered his services, which mister Fogg accepted,
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  Speaker 1: promising so generous a ward as to materially stimulate his zeal.
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  Speaker 1: The elephant was led out and equipped. The Parsi, who
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  Speaker 1: was an accomplished elephant driver, covered his back with a
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  Speaker 1: sort of saddlecloth and attached to each of his flanks
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  Speaker 1: some curiously uncomfortable howdahs phileas Fogg paid the Indian with
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  Speaker 1: some bank notes which he extracted from the famous carpet bag,
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  Speaker 1: a proceeding that seemed to deprive poor passepartout of his vitals.
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  Speaker 1: Then he offered to carry Sir Francis to Allahabad, which
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  Speaker 1: the Brigadier gratefully accepted, as one traveler the more would
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  Speaker 1: not be likely to fatigue. The gigantic beast provisions were
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  Speaker 1: purchased at Colby, and while Sir Francis and mister Fogg
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  Speaker 1: took the howdahs on either side, passepartout got astride the
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  Speaker 1: saddlecloth between them. The Parsi perched himself on the elephant's neck,
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  Speaker 1: and at nine o'clock they set out from the village,
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  Speaker 1: the animal marching off through the dense forest of palms.
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  Speaker 1: By the shortest cut end of chapter