Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 7.djvu/248

 ing in the forward part of the vessel when the detective rushed toward him exclaiming, "Is this you, on the Rangoon?"

"Monsieur Fix aboard!" replied Passepartout, very much surprised, recognizing his old acquaintance of the Mongolia.

"What! I left you at Bombay, and I meet you again on the route to Hong Kong! Are you making also the tour of the world?"

"No, no," replied Fix. "I expect to stop at Hong Kong, at least for a few days."

"Ah!" said Passepartout, who seemed astonished for a moment. "But why have I not seen you aboard since we left Calcutta?"

"Indeed, I was sick—a little sea-sickness—I remained lying down in my cabin—I did not get along as well in the Bay of Bengal as in the Indian Ocean. And your master, Phileas Fogg?"

"Is in perfect health, and as punctual as his diary! Not one day behind! Ah! Monsieur Fix, you do not know it, but we have a young lady with us also."

"A young lady?" replied the detective, who acted exactly as if he did not understand what his companion was saying.

But Passepartout soon gave him the thread of the whole story. He related the incident of the pagoda in Bombay, the purchase of the elephant at the cost of two thousand pounds, the suttee affair, the abduction of Aouda, the sentence of the Calcutta court, and their freedom under bail. Fix, who knew the last portion of these incidents, seemed not to know any of them, and Passepartout gave himself up to the pleasure of telling his adventures to a hearer who showed so much interest.

"But," asked Fix at the end of the story, "does your master intend to take this young woman to Europe?"

"Not at all, Monsieur Fix; not at all! We are simply going to put her in charge of one of her relatives, a rich merchant of Hong Kong."

"Nothing to be done there," said the detective to himself, concealing his disappointment. Take a glass of gin, Mr. Passepartout."

"With pleasure, Monsieur Fix. It is the least that we should drink to our meeting aboard the Rangoon."