Phileas Fogg
rightly suspected that his
departure from London
would create a lively sensation
at the West End. The news of
the bet spread through the Reform
Club, and afforded an exciting
topic of conversation to its
members. From the club it soon
got into the papers throughout
England. The boasted "tour of
the world" was talked about,
disputed, argued with as much
warmth as if the subject were
another Alabama claim. Some took
sides with Phileas Fogg, but
the large majority shook their
heads and declared against him;
it was absurd, impossible, they
declared, that the tour of the
world could be made, except theoretically
and on paper, in this minimum
of time, and with the existing
means of travelling. The Times,
Standard, Morning Post, and Daily
News, and twenty other highly
respectable newspapers scouted
Mr. Fogg's project as madness;
the Daily Telegraph alone hesitatingly
supported him. People in general
thought him a lunatic, and blamed
his Reform Club friends for having
accepted a wager which betrayed
the mental aberration of its
proposer.
Articles no
less passionate than logical
appeared on the
question, for geography is one
of the pet subjects of the English;
and the columns devoted to Phileas
Fogg's venture were eagerly devoured
by all classes of readers. At
first some rash individuals,
principally of the gentler sex,
espoused his cause, which became
still more popular when the Illustrated
London News came out with his
portrait, copied from a photograph
in the Reform Club. A few readers
of the Daily Telegraph even dared
to say, "Why not, after all?
Stranger things have come to
pass."
At last a long article appeared,
on the 7th of October, in the
bulletin of the Royal Geographical
Society, which treated the question
from every point of view, and
demonstrated the utter folly
of the enterprise.
Everything, it said, was against
the travellers, every obstacle
imposed alike by man and by nature.
A miraculous agreement of the
times of departure and arrival,
which was impossible, was absolutely
necessary to his success. He
might, perhaps, reckon on the
arrival of trains at the designated
hours, in Europe, where the distances
were relatively moderate; but
when he calculated upon crossing
India in three days, and the
United States in seven, could
he rely beyond misgiving upon
accomplishing his task? There
were accidents to machinery,
the liability of trains to run
off the line, collisions, bad
weather, the blocking up by snow--were
not all these against Phileas
Fogg? Would he not find himself,
when travelling by steamer in
winter, at the mercy of the winds
and fogs? Is it uncommon for
the best ocean steamers to be
two or three days behind time?
But a single delay would suffice
to fatally break the chain of
communication; should Phileas
Fogg once miss, even by an hour;
a steamer, he would have to wait
for the next, and that would
irrevocably render his attempt
vain.
This article made a great deal
of noise, and, being copied into
all the papers, seriously depressed
the advocates of the rash tourist.
Everybody knows
that England is the world of
betting men,
who are of a higher class than
mere gamblers; to bet is in the
English temperament. Not only
the members of the Reform, but
the general public, made heavy
wagers for or against Phileas
Fogg, who was set down in the
betting books as if he were a
race-horse. Bonds were issued,
and made their appearance on
'Change; "Phileas Fogg bonds" were
offered at par or at a premium,
and a great business was done
in them. But five days after
the article in the bulletin of
the Geographical Society appeared,
the demand began to subside: "Phileas
Fogg" declined. They were offered
by packages, at first of five,
then of ten, until at last nobody
would take less than twenty,
fifty, a hundred!
Lord Albemarle,
an elderly paralytic gentleman,
was now
the only advocate of Phileas
Fogg left. This noble lord, who
was fastened to his chair, would
have given his fortune to be
able to make the tour of the
world, if it took ten years;
and he bet five thousand pounds
on Phileas Fogg. When the folly
as well as the uselessness of
the adventure was pointed out
to him, he contented himself
with replying, "If the thing
is feasible, the first to do
it ought to be an Englishman."
The Fogg party dwindled more
and more, everybody was going
against him, and the bets stood
a hundred and fifty and two hundred
to one; and a week after his
departure an incident occurred
which deprived him of backers
at any price.
The commissioner of police
was sitting in his office at
nine o'clock one evening, when
the following telegraphic dispatch
was put into his hands:
Suez to London.
Rowan, Commissioner of Police,
Scotland Yard:
I've found the bank robber,
Phileas Fogg. Send with out delay
warrant of arrest to Bombay.
Fix, Detective.
The effect of this dispatch
was instantaneous. The polished
gentleman disappeared to give
place to the bank robber. His
photograph, which was hung with
those of the rest of the members
at the Reform Club, was minutely
examined, and it betrayed, feature
by feature, the description of
the robber which had been provided
to the police. The mysterious
habits of Phileas Fogg were recalled;
his solitary ways, his sudden
departure; and it seemed clear
that, in undertaking a tour round
the world on the pretext of a
wager, he had had no other end
in view than to elude the detectives,
and throw them off his track.
|