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

It was absurd, impossible – in this minimum of time! People in general thought him a lunatic, and blamed his Reform Club friends for this wager.

A few readers of the Daily Telegraph even dared to say, “Why not, after all? Stranger things happened.” Everybody knows that to bet is in the English temperament. Not only the members of the Reform, but the general public, made wagers for or against Phileas Fogg. He became a race-horse. But everybody was against Fogg, and the bets stood a hundred and fifty and two hundred to one.

A week after his departure an incident occurred. The commissioner of police was in his office at nine o’clock one evening, when the following telegraphic dispatch arrived:

“Suez to London.

Rowan, Commissioner of Police, Scotland Yard[45 - Scotland Yard – Скотланд-Ярд (штаб-квартира полицейского учреждения в Англии)]:

I found the bank robber, Phileas Fogg. Send with out delay warrant of arrest[46 - warrant of arrest – ордер на арест] to Bombay.

Fix, Detective”.

The effect of this dispatch was instantaneous. The polished gentleman disappeared to give place to the bank robber. The mysterious habits of Phileas Fogg were recalled; his solitary ways, his sudden departure.

Chapter VI

The circumstances were as follows. The steamer Mongolia[47 - Mongolia – «Монголия» (название пакебота)] plied regularly between Brindisi and Bombay via the Suez Canal, and was one of the fastest steamers.

Two men walked up and down the wharves, among the crowd of natives and strangers. One was the British consul at Suez. The other was a small personage, with a nervous, intelligent face and bright eyes. He was nervously paced up and down, and was unable to stand still for a moment. This was Fix, one of the detectives. Fix came from to catch the bank robber. It was his task to watch every passenger who arrived at Suez, and to follow up all suspicious characters.

“So you say, consul,” said he, “that this steamer comes directly from Brindisi?”

“Directly from Brindisi. Have patience, Mr. Fix; it will not be late. But really, I don’t see how, from the description you have, you will be able to recognise your man, even if he is on board the Mongolia.