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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty one, in which Fixed the detective considerably furthers
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  Speaker 1: the interests of Phileas Fogg. Phileas Fogg found himself twenty
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  Speaker 1: hours behind time passpartout. The involuntary cause of this delay
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  Speaker 1: was desperate he had ruined his master. At this moment,
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  Speaker 1: the detective approached mister Fogg, and, looking him intently in
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  Speaker 1: the face, said, seriously, sir, are you in great haste?
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  Speaker 1: Quite seriously, I have a purpose in asking, resumed Fix,
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  Speaker 1: Is it absolutely necessary that you should be in New
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  Speaker 1: York on the eleventh before nine o'clock in the evening,
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  Speaker 1: the time that the steamer leaves for Liverpool. It is
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  Speaker 1: absolutely necessary, And if your journey had not been interrupted
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  Speaker 1: by these Indians, you would have reached New York on
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  Speaker 1: the morning of the eleventh. Yes, with eleven hours despair
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  Speaker 1: before the steamer left. Good. You are therefore twenty hours
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  Speaker 1: behind twelve from twenty leaves eight, you must regain eight hours.
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  Speaker 1: Do you wish to try to do so on foot?
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  Speaker 1: Asked mister Fogg. No on a sledge, replied Fix, on
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  Speaker 1: a sledge with sails. A man has proposed such a
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  Speaker 1: method to me. It was the man who had spoken
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  Speaker 1: to Fix during the night, and whose offer he had refused.
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  Speaker 1: Phileas Fogg did not reply at once, but Fix, having
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  Speaker 1: pointed out the man who was walking up and down
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  Speaker 1: in front of the station, mister Fogg went up to him.
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  Speaker 1: An instant after mister Fogg and the American, whose name
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  Speaker 1: was Mudge, entered a hut built just below the fort.
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  Speaker 1: There mister Fogg examined a curious vehicle, a kind of
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  Speaker 1: frame on two long beams, a little raised in front,
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  Speaker 1: like the runners of a sledge, and upon which there
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  Speaker 1: was room for five or six persons. A high mast
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  Speaker 1: was fixed on the frame, held firmly by metallic lashings,
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  Speaker 1: to which was attached to large brigandine sail. This mast
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  Speaker 1: held an iron stay upon which to hoist a jibsail
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  Speaker 1: behind a sort of rudder served to guide the vehicle.
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  Speaker 1: It was, in short, a sledge rigged like a sloop.
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  Speaker 1: During the winter, when the trains are blocked up by
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  Speaker 1: the snow, these sledges make extremely rapid journeys across the
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  Speaker 1: frozen plains from one station to another. Provided with more
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  Speaker 1: sails than a cutter, and with the wind behind them,
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  Speaker 1: they slip over the surface of the prairies with a
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  Speaker 1: speed equal, if not superior, to that of the express trains.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Fogg readily made a bargain with the owner of
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  Speaker 1: this land craft. The wind was favorable, being fresh and
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  Speaker 1: blowing from the west. The snow had hardened, and Mudge
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  Speaker 1: was very confident of being able to transport mister Fogg
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  Speaker 1: in a few hours to Omaha. Thence, the trains eastward
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  Speaker 1: run frequently to Chicago and New York. It was not
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  Speaker 1: in possible that the lost time might yet be recovered,
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  Speaker 1: and such an opportunity was not to be rejected. Not
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  Speaker 1: wishing to expose Aouda to the discomforts of traveling in
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  Speaker 1: the open air, mister Fogg proposed to leave her with
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  Speaker 1: Passepartout at Fort Kearney, the servant taking upon himself to
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  Speaker 1: escort her to Europe by a better route and under
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  Speaker 1: more favorable conditions. But Aouda refused to separate from mister Fogg,
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  Speaker 1: and Passepartout was delighted with her decision, for nothing could
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  Speaker 1: induce him to leave his master. While fix was with him,
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  Speaker 1: it would be difficult to guess the detective's thoughts. Was
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  Speaker 1: this conviction shaken by phileas Fogg's return, or did he
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  Speaker 1: still regard him as an exceedingly shrewd rascal who, his
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  Speaker 1: journey round the world completed, would think himself absolutely safe
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  Speaker 1: in England. Perhaps Fix's opinion of Phileas Fogg was somewhat modified,
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  Speaker 1: but it was nevertheless resolved to do his duty and
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  Speaker 1: to hasten the turn of the whole party to England
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  Speaker 1: as much as possible. At eight o'clock the sledge was
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  Speaker 1: ready to start. The passengers took their places on it
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  Speaker 1: and wrapped themselves up closely in their traveling cloaks. The
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  Speaker 1: two great sails were hoisted, and under the pressure of
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  Speaker 1: the wind, the sledge slid over the hardened snow with
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  Speaker 1: a velocity of forty miles an hour. The distance between
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  Speaker 1: Fort Kearney and Omaha, as the birds fly, is at
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  Speaker 1: most two hundred miles. If the wind held good, the
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  Speaker 1: distance might be traversed in five hours. If no accident happened,
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  Speaker 1: the sledge might reach Omaha by one o'clock. What a journey.
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  Speaker 1: The travelers, huddled close together, could not speak for the cold,
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  Speaker 1: intensified by the rapidity of which they were going. The
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  Speaker 1: sledge sped on as lightly as a boat over the waves.
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  Speaker 1: When the breeze came skimming over the earth, the sledge
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  Speaker 1: seemed to be lifted off the ground by its sails. Mudge,
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  Speaker 1: who was at the rudder, kept in a straight line,
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  Speaker 1: and by a turn of his hand, checked the lurches
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  Speaker 1: which the vehicle had a tendency to make. All the
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  Speaker 1: sails were up, and the jib was so arranged as
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  Speaker 1: not to screen the brigantine. A top mast was hoisted,
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  Speaker 1: and another jib held out to the wind, added its
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  Speaker 1: force to the other sails. Although the speed could not
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  Speaker 1: be exactly estimated, the sledge could not be going at
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  Speaker 1: less than forty miles an hour. If nothing breaks, said Mudge,
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  Speaker 1: we shall get there. Mister Fogg had made it for
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  Speaker 1: Mudge's interest to reach Omaha within the time agreed upon
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  Speaker 1: by the offer of a handsome reward. The prairie across
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  Speaker 1: which the sledge was moving in a straight line was
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  Speaker 1: as flat as a sea. It seemed like a vast
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  Speaker 1: frozen lake. The railroad which ran through this section ascended
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  Speaker 1: from the southwest to the northwest by Great Island, Columbus,
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  Speaker 1: an important Nebraska town Schuyler, and Fremont to Omaha. It
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  Speaker 1: followed throughout the right bank of the Platte River. The sledge,
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  Speaker 1: shortening this route, took a cord of the ark described
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  Speaker 1: by the railway. Mudge was not afraid of being stopped
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  Speaker 1: by the Platte River because it was frozen. The road
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  Speaker 1: then was quite clear of obstacles and phileas. Fogg had
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  Speaker 1: but two things to fear, an accident to the sledge,
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  Speaker 1: and a change or calm in the wind. But the breeze,
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  Speaker 1: far from lessening its force, blew as if to bend
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  Speaker 1: the mast, which, however, the metallic lashings held firmly. These lashings,
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  Speaker 1: like the cords of a stringed instrument, resounded as if
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  Speaker 1: vibrated by a vile inbow. The sledge slid along in
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  Speaker 1: the midst of a plaintively intense melody. Those cords give
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  Speaker 1: the fifth and the octave, said mister Fogg. These were
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  Speaker 1: the only words he uttered during the journey. Aouda, cozily
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  Speaker 1: packed in furs and cloaks, was sheltered as much as
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  Speaker 1: possible from the atape of the freezing wind. As for passpartout.
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  Speaker 1: His face was as red as the sun's disc when
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  Speaker 1: it sets in the mist, and he laboriously inhaled the
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  Speaker 1: biting air with his natural buoyancy of spirits. He began
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  Speaker 1: to hope again they would reach New York in the evening,
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  Speaker 1: if not on the morning of the eleventh, and there
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  Speaker 1: was still some chances that it would be before the
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  Speaker 1: steamer sailed for Liverpool. Passpartout even felt a strong desire
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  Speaker 1: to grasp his ally fix by the hand. He remembered
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  Speaker 1: that it was the detective who procured the sledge the
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  Speaker 1: only means of reaching Omaha in time, But checked by
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  Speaker 1: some presentiment, he kept his usual reserve. One thing, however,
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  Speaker 1: Passepartout would never forget, and that was the sacrifice which
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  Speaker 1: mister Fogg had made without hesitation, to rescue him from
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  Speaker 1: the Sioux. Mister Fogg had risked his fortune and his life. No,
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  Speaker 1: his servant would never forget that. While each of the
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  Speaker 1: party was absorbed in reflections so different, the sledge flew
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  Speaker 1: past over the vast carpet of snow. The creeks it
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  Speaker 1: passed over were not perceived. Fields and streams disappeared under
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  Speaker 1: the uniform whiteness. The plain was absolutely deserted. Between the
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  Speaker 1: Union Pacific Road and the branch which unites Kearney with
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  Speaker 1: Saint Joseph had formed a great uninhabited island. Neither village,
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  Speaker 1: station nor fort appeared. From time to time they sped
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  Speaker 1: by some phantomlike tree, whose white skeleton twisted and rattled
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  Speaker 1: in the wind. Sometimes flocks of wild birds rose, or
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  Speaker 1: bands of gaunt famished. Ferocious prairie wolves ran howling. After
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  Speaker 1: the sledge. Passepartout, revolver in hand, held himself ready to
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  Speaker 1: fire on those which came too near. Had an accident
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  Speaker 1: then happened to the sledge. The travelers attacked by these
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  Speaker 1: bees easts would have been in the most terrible danger,
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  Speaker 1: but it held on its even course, soon gained on
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  Speaker 1: the wolves, and ere long left the howling band at
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  Speaker 1: a safe distance behind. About noon, Mudge perceived by certain
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  Speaker 1: landmarks that he was crossing the Platte River. He said nothing,
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  Speaker 1: but he felt certain that he was now within twenty
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  Speaker 1: miles of Omaha in less than an hour. He left
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  Speaker 1: the rudder and furled his sails. Whilst the sledge, carried
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  Speaker 1: forward by the great impetus the wind had given. It
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  Speaker 1: went on half a mile further, with its sails unspread.
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  Speaker 1: It stopped at last, and Mudge, pointing to a mass
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  Speaker 1: of roofs white with snow, said, we have got there. Arrived,
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  Speaker 1: arrived at the station, which is in daily communication by
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  Speaker 1: numerous trains with the Atlantic seaboard. Passepartout and Fix jumped off,
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  Speaker 1: stretched their stiffened limbs and aided mister Fogg and the
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  Speaker 1: young woman to descend from the sledge phileas. Fogg generously
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  Speaker 1: rewarded Mudge, whose hand Passepartout warmly grasped, and the party
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  Speaker 1: directed their steps to the Omaha Railway station. The Pacific
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  Speaker 1: Railroad proper finds its terminus at this important Nebraska town.
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  Speaker 1: Omaha is connected with Chicago by the Chicago and Rock
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  Speaker 1: Island Railroad, which runs directly east and passes fifty stations.
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  Speaker 1: A train was ready to start when mister Fogg and
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  Speaker 1: his party reached the station, and they only had time
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  Speaker 1: to get into the cars. They had seen nothing of Omaha,
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  Speaker 1: but Passepartou confessed to himself that this was not to
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  Speaker 1: be regretted, as they were not traveling to see the sites.
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  Speaker 1: The train passed rapidly across the state of Iowa by
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  Speaker 1: Council Bluffs, Des Moines and Iowa City. During the night,
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  Speaker 1: it crossed the Mississippi at Davenport, and by Rock Island
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  Speaker 1: entered Illinois the next day, which was the tenth. At
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  Speaker 1: four o'clock in the evening, it reached Chicago, already risen
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  Speaker 1: from its ruins and more proudly seated than ever on
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  Speaker 1: the borders of its beautiful Lake Michigan. Nine hundred miles
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  Speaker 1: separated Chicago from New York. But trains are not wanting
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  Speaker 1: at Chicago. Mister Fogg passed at once from one to
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  Speaker 1: the other, and the locomotive of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne
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  Speaker 1: and Chicago Railway left at full speed, as if it
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  Speaker 1: fully comprehended that that gentleman had no time to lose.
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  Speaker 1: It traversed Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey like a flash,
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  Speaker 1: rushing through towns with antique names, some of which had
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  Speaker 1: streets and car tracks, but as yet no houses. At last,
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  Speaker 1: the Hudson came into view, and at a quarter past
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  Speaker 1: eleven in the evening of the eleventh, the train stopped
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  Speaker 1: in the station on the right bank of the river
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  Speaker 1: before the very pier of the Cunard line. The China
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  Speaker 1: for Liverpool had started three quarters of an hour by
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  Speaker 1: four end of chapter