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Page 42
"Terribly anxious."
"You believe in this journey around the world, then?"
"Absolutely. Don't you, Mr. Fix?"
"I? I don't believe a word of it."
"You're a sly dog!" said Passepartout, winking at him.
This expression rather disturbed Fix, without his knowing why.
Had the Frenchman guessed his real purpose? He knew not what
to think. But how could Passepartout have discovered that he
was a detective? Yet, in speaking as he did, the man evidently
meant more than he expressed.
Passepartout went still further the next day; he could not hold his tongue.
"Mr. Fix," said he, in a bantering tone, "shall we be so unfortunate
as to lose you when we get to Hong Kong?"
"Why," responded Fix, a little embarrassed, "I don't know; perhaps--"
"Ah, if you would only go on with us! An agent of the Peninsular Company,
you know, can't stop on the way! You were only going to Bombay,
and here you are in China. America is not far off, and from America
to Europe is only a step."
Fix looked intently at his companion, whose countenance was
as serene as possible, and laughed with him. But Passepartout
persisted in chaffing him by asking him if he made much by his
present occupation.
"Yes, and no," returned Fix; "there is good and bad luck in such things.
But you must understand that I don't travel at my own expense."
"Oh, I am quite sure of that!" cried Passepartout, laughing heartily.
Fix, fairly puzzled, descended to his cabin and gave himself
up to his reflections. He was evidently suspected; somehow
or other the Frenchman had found out that he was a detective.
But had he told his master? What part was he playing in all this:
was he an accomplice or not? Was the game, then, up? Fix spent
several hours turning these things over in his mind, sometimes
thinking that all was lost, then persuading himself that Fogg
was ignorant of his presence, and then undecided what course
it was best to take.
Nevertheless, he preserved his coolness of mind, and at last
resolved to deal plainly with Passepartout. If he did not find it
practicable to arrest Fogg at Hong Kong, and if Fogg made preparations
to leave that last foothold of English territory, he, Fix, would tell
Passepartout all. Either the servant was the accomplice of his master,
and in this case the master knew of his operations, and he should fail;
or else the servant knew nothing about the robbery, and then his interest
would be to abandon the robber.
Such was the situation between Fix and Passepartout. Meanwhile Phileas Fogg
moved about above them in the most majestic and unconscious indifference.
He was passing methodically in his orbit around the world, regardless of
the lesser stars which gravitated around him. Yet there was near by what
the astronomers would call a disturbing star, which might have produced
an agitation in this gentleman's heart. But no! the charms of Aouda
failed to act, to Passepartout's great surprise; and the disturbances,
if they existed, would have been more difficult to calculate than those
of Uranus which led to the discovery of Neptune.
It was every day an increasing wonder to Passepartout, who read
in Aouda's eyes the depths of her gratitude to his master.
Phileas Fogg, though brave and gallant, must be, he thought,
quite heartless. As to the sentiment which this journey might
have awakened in him, there was clearly no trace of such a thing;
while poor Passepartout existed in perpetual reveries.
One day he was leaning on the railing of the engine-room,
and was observing the engine, when a sudden pitch of the steamer
threw the screw out of the water. The steam came hissing out
of the valves; and this made Passepartout indignant.
"The valves are not sufficiently charged!" he exclaimed. "We are
not going. Oh, these English! If this was an American craft,
we should blow up, perhaps, but we should at all events go faster!"
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