Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 7.djvu/262

 these gentlemen have put themselves to very useless expense.

"Useless," said Fix. "You speak confidently! It may be seen that you do not know the size of the sum!"

"But I do know it," said Passepartout. "Twenty thousand pounds!"

"Fifty-five thousand!" replied Fix, grasping the Frenchman's hand.

"What!" cried Passepartout, "Monsieur Fogg would have dared—Fifty-five thousand pounds! Well, well! All the more reason that I should not lose an instant," he added rising again.

"Fifty-five thousand pounds!" replied Fix, who forced Passepartout to sit down again, after having ordered a decanter of brandy, "and if I succeed, I get a reward of two thousand pounds. Do you wish five hundred of them on condition that you help me?"

"Help you!" cried Passepartout, whose eyes were opened very wide.

"Yes, help me to detain Mr. Fogg in Hong Kong for a few days!"

"Phew!" said Passepartout, "what are you saying? How, not satisfied with having my master followed, with suspecting his faithfulness, do these gentlemen wish to throw new obstacles in his way. I am ashamed for them."

"Ah! what do you mean by that?" asked Fix.

"I mean that it is simple indelicacy. It is about the same as stripping Monsieur Fogg and putting his money in their pockets."

"Ah! that is the very thing we are coming to!"

"But it is a trap!" cried Passepartout—who was getting lively under the influence of the brandy with which Fix was plying him, and which he drank without noticing it—"a real trap! Gentlemen! Colleagues!"

Fix began to be puzzled.

"Colleagues!" cried Passepartout, "members of the Reform Club! You must know, Monsieur Fix, that my master is an honest man, and that, when he has made a bet, he intends to win it fairly."

"But who do you think I am?" asked Fix, fastening his look upon Passepartout.

"Parbleu! an agent of the members of the Reform Club