Bab Bab 5 · IN WHICH A NEW SPECIES OF FUNDS, UNKNOWN TO THE MONEYED MEN, APPEARS ON

. IN WHICH A NEW SPECIES OF FUNDS, UNKNOWN TO THE MONEYED MEN, APPEARS ON

’CHANGE

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 without 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.