Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 7.djvu/241

 "I confess and expect these three priests to confess in their turn what they were going to do at the pagoda of Pillaji."

The priests looked at each other. They did not seem to understand the words of the accused.

"Truly!" cried Passepartout impetuously, at the pagoda of Pillaji, where they were going to burn their victim!"

More stupefaction of the priests, and profound astonishment of Judge Obadiah.

"What victim?" he answered. "Burn whom? In the heart of the city of Bombay?"

"Bombay?" cried Passepartout.

"Certainly. We are not speaking of the pagoda of Pillaji, but of the pagoda of Malebar in Bombay."

"And as a proof here are the desecrator's shoes," added the clerk, putting a pair on his desk.

"Those are my shoes!" cried Passepartout, who, surprised at the last charge, could not prevent this involuntary exclamation.

The confusion in the minds of the master and servant may be imagined. They had forgotten the incident of the pagoda of Bombay, and that was the very thing which had brought them before the magistrate in Calcutta.

In fact, Fix understood the advantage that he might get from this unfortunate affair. Delaying his departure twelve hours, he had taken counsel with the priests of Malebar Hill, and had promised them large damages, knowing very well that the English Government was very severe upon this kind of trespass; then by the following train he had sent them forward on the track of the perpetrator. But, in consequence of the time employed in the deliverance of the young widow, Fix and the Hindoos arrived at Calcutta before Phileas Fogg and his servant, whom the authorities, warned by telegraph, were to arrest as they got out of the train. The disappointment of Fix may be judged of, when he learned that Phileas Fogg had not yet arrived in the capital of India. He was compelled to think that his robber, stopping at one of the stations of the Peninsular Railway, had taken refuge in the northern provinces. For twenty-four hours, in the greatest uneasiness, Fix watched for him at the station. What was his joy then when, this very morn-