Вокруг света за 80 дней / Around the World in Eighty Days

Among the trees, the pagoda of Pillaji loomed distinctly. The Parsee led his companions back again. They lay down at the foot of a tree and waited.

The time seemed long, the guards watched steadily by the glare of the torches, and a dim light crept through the windows of the pagoda. They waited till midnight; but no change took place among the guards.

“We have nothing to do but to go away,” whispered Sir Francis.

“Nothing but to go away,” echoed the guide.

Meanwhile Passepartout resolved an idea.

“What folly!” said he. “Why not, after all? It’s a chance, perhaps the only one!”

And he slipped to the lowest branches. The hours passed, and the lighter shades announced the approach of day. This was the moment. This was the hour of the sacrifice. The doors of the pagoda swung open[72 - swung open – распахнулись], and a bright light escaped from its interior. In the midst of it Mr. Fogg and Sir Francis saw the victim.

Phileas Fogg and his companions followed; and in two minutes they reached the banks of the stream. Then they stopped fifty paces from the pyre, upon which still lay the rajah’s corpse. They saw the victim, quite senseless, stretched out beside her husband’s body. Then a torch was brought, and the wood, heavily soaked with oil, instantly took fire[73 - took fire – загорелось].

At this moment Sir Francis and the guide seized Phileas Fogg, who wanted to rush upon the pyre. But the whole scene suddenly changed. A cry of terror arose. The Indians prostrated themselves on the ground.

The old rajah was not dead, then, since he rose of a sudden, like a spectre, took up his wife in his arms, and descended from the pyre in the midst of the clouds of smoke. Fakirs and soldiers and priests lay there, with their faces on the ground.

Mr. Fogg and Sir Francis were astonished, the Parsee bowed his head. The resuscitated rajah approached Sir Francis and Mr. Fogg, and said,

“Let’s run!”

It was Passepartout himself, who slipped upon the pyre in the midst of the smoke and delivered the young woman from death! It was Passepartout who passed through the crowd amid the general terror.