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15 - Around The World in Eighty Days - Jules Verne · Science Fiction Books - Daily

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  Chapter fifteen, in which the bag of bank notes disgorgeous some thousands of pounds
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  more. The train entered the station, and Passepartout, jumping out first,
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  was followed by mister Fogg, who assisted his fair companion to descend. Phileas
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  Fogg intended to proceed at once to the Hong Kong steamer in order to get
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  Aouda comfortably settled for the voyage. He was unwilling to leave her while they
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  were still on dangerous ground. Just as he was leaving the station, a
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  policeman came up to him and said, mister Phileas Fogg, I am he
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  is this man your servant, added the policeman, pointing to Passepartout, Yes,
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  be so good both of you as to follow me. Mister Fogg betrayed
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  no surprise whatever. The policeman was a representative of the law, and law
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  is sacred to an Englishman. Passepartout tried to reason about the matter, but
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  the policeman tapped him with his stick, and mister Fogg made him a signal
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  to obey. May this young lady go with us, asked he she may,
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  replied the policeman mister Fogg. Aouda and Passepartout were conducted in a palkigawi,
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  a sort of four wheeled carriage drawn by two horses, in which they
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  took their places and were driven away. No one spoke during the twenty minutes
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  which elapsed before they reached their destination. They first passed through the blacktown,
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  with its narrow streets, its miserable, dirty huts, and squalid population,
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  then through the European town, which presented a relief in its bright brick mansions,
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  shaded by cocoa nut trees and bristling with masts, where, although it
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  was early morning, elegantly dressed horsemen and handsome equipages were passing back and forth.
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  The carrie stopped before a modest looking house, which however, did not
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  have the appearance of a private mansion. The policeman, having requested his prisoners
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  for so truly they might be called to descend, conducted them into a room
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  with barred windows, and said you will appear before Judge Obadiah at half past
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  eight. He then retired and closed the door. Why we are prisoners,
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  exclaimed Passepartout, falling into a chair. Aouda with an emotion she tried to
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  conceal said to mister Fogg, Sir, you must leave me to my fate.
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  It is on my account that you receive this treatment. It is for
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  having saved me. Phileas Fogg contented himself with saying that it was impossible,
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  it was quite unlikely that he should be arrested for preventing a settee. The
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  complainants would not dare present themselves with such a charge. There was some mistake.
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  Moreover, he would not, in any event abandoned Aouda, but would
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  escort her to Hong Kong. But the steamer leaves at noon, observed Passepartout
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  nervously. We shall be on board by noon, replied his master placidly.
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  It was said so positively that Passepartout could not help muttering to himself, parbleu,
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  that's certain before noon we shall be on board. But he was by
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  no means reassured. At half past eight, the door opened, The policeman
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  appeared, and, requesting them to follow him, led the way to an
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  adjoining hall. It was evidently a court room, and a crowd of Europeans
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  and natives already occupied the rear of the apartment. Mister Fogg and his two
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  companions took their places on a bench opposite the desks of the magistrate and his
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  clerk. Immediately after, Judge Obadiah, a fat round man, followed by
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  the clerk, entered seated to take down a wig which was hanging on a
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  nail, and put it hurriedly on his head. The first case said.
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  He then, putting his hand to his head, he exclaimed, he this
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  is not my wig. Know your worship, returned the clerk, It is
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  mine, my dear mister Oysterpuff. How can a judge give a wise sentence
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  in a clerk's wig? The whigs were exchanged. Passepartout was getting nervous for
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  the hands on the face of the big clock over. The judge seemed to
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  go around with terrible rapidity, the first case repeated Judge Obadiah. Phileas Fogg
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  demanded, Oysterpuff. I am here, replied mister Fogg. Passepartout Braison,
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  responded Passepartout Good, said the judge, you have been looked for prisoners for
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  two days on the trains from Bombay. But of what are we accused,
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  asked Passepartout, impatiently, you are about to be informed. I am an
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  English subject, Sir said mister Fogg, and I have the right. Have
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  you been ill treated? Not at all? Very well? Let the complainants
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  come in. A door was swung open by order of the judge, and
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  three Indian priests entered. That's it, muttered Passepartout. These are the rogues
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  who are going to burn our young lady. The priest took their places in
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  front of the judge, and the clerk proceeded to read in a loud voice
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  a complaint of sacrilege against Phileas Fogg and his servant, who were accused of
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  having violated a place held consecrated by the Brahmin religion. You hear the charge,
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  asked the judge. Yes, sir, replied mister Fogg, consulting his
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  watch, and I admit it. You admit it, I admit it,
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  and I wished to hear these priests admit in their turn what they were going
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  to do at the Pagoda of Pilagi. The priest looked at each other.
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  They did not seem to understand what was said. Yes, cried Passepartout warmly,
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  at the Pagoda of Pilagi, where they were on the point of burning
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  their victim. The judge stared with astonishment, and the priests were stupefied.
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  What victim said Judge Obadiah Burn, whom in Bombay itself, Bombay, cried
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  Passepartout. Certainly, we're not talking in the pagoda of Pilagi, but of
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  the pagoda of Malabar Hill at Bombay. And as a proof, added the
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  clerk, here are the desecrator's very shoes, what he left behind him.
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  Whereupon he placed a pair of shoes on his desk. My shoes, cried
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  Passepartout in his surprise, permitting this prudent exclamation to escape him. The confusion
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  of master and man, who had quite forgotten the affair at Bombay, for
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  which they were now detained at Calcutta, may be imagined fixed. The detective
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  had foreseen the advantage which Passepartout's escapade gave him, and, delaying his departure
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  for twelve hours, had consulted the priests of Malabar Hill, knowing that the
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  English authorities dealt very severely with this kind of misdemeanor. He promised them a
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  goodly sum in damages and sent them forward to Calcutta by the next train.
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  Owing to the delay caused by the rescue of the young widow, Fix and
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  the priests reached the Indian capital before mister Fogg and his servant, the magistrates
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  having been already warned by a dispatch to arrest them should they arrive. Fix's
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  disappointment when he learned that Phileas Fogg had not made his appearance in Calcutta may
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  be imagined he made up his mind that the robber had stopped somewhere on the
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  route and taken refuge in the southern provinces. For twenty four hours, Fix
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  watched the station with feverish anxiety. At last, he was rewarded by seeing
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  mister Fogg and Passepartout arrive, accompanied by a young woman whose presence he was
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  wholly at a loss to explain. He hastened for a policeman, and this
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  was how the party came to be arrested and brought before Judge Obadiah. Had
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  Passepartout been a little less preoccupied, he would have espied the detective ensconced in
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  a corner of the court room, watching the proceedings with an interest easily understood,
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  for the warrant had failed to reach him at Calcutta, as it had
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  done at Bombay and Suez. Judge Obadiah had unfortunately caught Passepartout's rash exclamation,
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  which the poor fellow would have given the world to recall. The facts are
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  admitted, asked the judge admitted, replied mister Fogg coldly. Inasmuch resumed the
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  Judge, as the English law protects equally and sternly the religions of the Indian
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  people, and as the man Passepartout has admitted that he violated the sacred pagoda
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  of Malabar Hill at Bombay on the twentieth October, I condemned the said Passepartout
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  to imprisonment for fifteen days and a fine of three hundred pounds. Three hundred
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  pounds, cried Passepartout, startled at the largeness of the sum silence, shouted
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  the constable. And inasmuch continued the judge, as it is not proved that
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  the act was not done by the connivance of the master with the servant,
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  and as the master in any case must be held responsible for the acts of
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  his paid servant, I condemn Phileas Fogg to a week's imprisonment and a fine
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  of one hundred and fifty pounds. Fix rubbed his hands softly with satisfaction.
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  If Phileas Fogg could be detained in Calcutta a week, it would be more
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  than time for the warrant to arrive. Passepartout was stupefied. This sentence ruined
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  his master, a wager of twenty thousand pounds lost, because he, like
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  a precious fool, had gone into that abominable pagoda. Phileas Fogg, as
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  self composed as if the judgment did not in the least concern him, did
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  not even lift his eyebrows while it was being pronounced. Just as the clerk
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  was calling the next case, he rose and said, I offer bail.
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  You have that right, returned the judge. Fix's blood ran cold, but
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  he resumed his composure when he heard the judge announce that the bail required for
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  each prisoner would be one thousand pounds. I will pay it at once,
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  said mister Fogg, taking a roll of bank bills from the carpet bag which
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  Passepartout had had by him, and placing them on the clerk's desk. The
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  sum will be restored to you upon your release from prison, said the judge.
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  Meanwhile, you are liberated on bail, come, said Phileas Fogg to
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  his servant. But let them at least give me back my shoes, cried
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  Passepartout angrily. Ah these are pretty dear shoes, he muttered, as they
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  were handed to him, more than a thousand pounds apiece. Besides, they'd
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  pinch my feet. Mister Fogg, offering his arm to Aouda, then departed,
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  followed by the crestfall in passepartout. Fix still nourished hopes that the robber
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  would not, after all leave the two thousand pounds behind him, but would
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  decide to serve out his week in jail, and issued forth on mister Fogg's
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  traces. That gentleman took a carriage, and the party were soon landed on
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  one of the keys. The rangoon was moored half a mile off in the
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  harbor, its signal of departure hoisted at the masthead. Eleven o'clock was striking.
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  Mister Fogg was an hour in advance of time. Fix saw them leave
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  the carriage and push off in a boat for the steamer, and stamped his
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  feet with disappointment. The rascal is off after all, he exclaimed. Two
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  thousand pounds sacrificed. He's as prodigal as a thief. I'll follow him to
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  the end of the world if necessary, but at the rate he is going
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  on, the stolen money will soon be exhausted. The detective was not far
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  wrong in making this conjecture, since leaving London, what with traveling expenses,
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  bribes, the purchase of the elephant, bales and fines, mister Fogg had
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  already spent more than five thousand pounds on the way, and the percentage of
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  the sum recovered from the bank robber promised to the detectives was rapidly diminishing.
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  End of chapter M