Chapter XV. IN WHICH THE BAG OF BANKNOTES DISGORGES SOME THOUSANDS OF POUNDS MORE

The train entered the station, and Passepartout jumping out first, was followed by Mr. Fogg, who assisted his fair companion to descend. Phileas Fogg intended to proceed at once to the Hong Kong steamer, in order to get Aouda comfortably settled for the voyage. He was unwilling to leave her while they were still on dangerous ground.

Just as he was leaving the station a policeman came up to him, and said, "Mr. Phileas Fogg?"

"I am he."

"Is this man your servant?" added the policeman, pointing to Passepartout.

"Yes."

"Be so good, both of you, as to follow me."

Mr. Fogg betrayed no surprise whatever. The policeman was a representative of the law, and law is sacred to an Englishman. Passepartout tried to reason about the matter, but the policeman tapped him with his stick, and Mr. Fogg made him a signal to obey.

"May this young lady go with us?" asked he.

"She may," replied the policeman.

Mr. Fogg, Aouda, and Passepartout were conducted to a palkigahri, a sort of four-wheeled carriage, drawn by two horses, in which they took their places and were driven away. No one spoke during the twenty minutes which elapsed before they reached their destination. They first passed through the "black town," with its narrow streets, its miserable, dirty huts, and squalid population; then through the "European town," which presented a relief in its bright brick mansions, shaded by coconut-trees and bristling with masts, where, although it was early morning, elegantly dressed horsemen and handsome equipages were passing back and forth.

The carriage stopped before a modest-looking house, which, however, did not have the appearance of a private mansion. The policeman having requested his prisoners—for so, truly, they might be called—to descend, conducted them into a room with barred windows, and said: "You will appear before Judge Obadiah at half-past eight."

He then retired, and closed the door.

"Why, we are prisoners!" exclaimed Passepartout, falling into a chair.

Aouda, with an emotion she tried to conceal, said to Mr. Fogg: "Sir, you must leave me to my fate! It is on my account that you receive this treatment, it is for having saved me!"

Phileas Fogg contented himself with saying that it was impossible. It was quite unlikely that he should be arrested for preventing a suttee. The complainants would not dare present themselves with such a charge. There was some mistake. Moreover, he would not, in any event, abandon Aouda, but would escort her to Hong Kong.

"But the steamer leaves at noon!" observed Passepartout, nervously.

"We shall be on board by noon," replied his master, placidly.

It was said so positively that Passepartout could not help muttering to himself, "Parbleu that's certain! Before noon we shall be on board." But he was by no means reassured.

At half-past eight the door opened, the policeman appeared, and, requesting them to follow him, led the way to an adjoining hall. It was evidently a court-room, and a crowd of Europeans and natives already occupied the rear of the apartment.

Mr. Fogg and his two companions took their places on a bench opposite the desks of the magistrate and his clerk. Immediately after, Judge Obadiah, a fat, round man, followed by the clerk, entered. He proceeded to take down a wig which was hanging on a nail, and put it hurriedly on his head.

"The first case," said he. Then, putting his hand to his head, he exclaimed, "Heh! This is not my wig!"

"No, your worship," returned the clerk, "it is mine."

"My dear Mr. Oysterpuff, how can a judge give a wise sentence in a clerk's wig?"

The wigs were exchanged.

Passepartout was getting nervous, for the hands on the face of the big clock over the judge seemed to go around with terrible rapidity.

"The first case," repeated Judge Obadiah.

"Phileas Fogg?" demanded Oysterpuff.

"I am here," replied Mr. Fogg.

"Passepartout?"

"Present," responded Passepartout.

"Good," said the judge. "You have been looked for, prisoners, for two days on the trains from Bombay."

"But of what are we accused?" asked Passepartout, impatiently.

"You are about to be informed."

"I am an English subject, sir," said Mr. Fogg, "and I have the right—"

"Have you been ill-treated?"

"Not at all."

"Very well; let the complainants come in."

A door was swung open by order of the judge, and three Indian priests entered.

"That's it," muttered Passepartout; "these are the rogues who were going to burn our young lady."

The priests took their places in front of the judge, and the clerk proceeded to read in a loud voice a complaint of sacrilege against Phileas Fogg and his servant, who were accused of having violated a place held consecrated by the Brahmin religion.

"You hear the charge?" asked the judge.

"Yes, sir," replied Mr. Fogg, consulting his watch, "and I admit it."

"You admit it?"

"I admit it, and I wish to hear these priests admit, 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 what was said.

"Yes," cried Passepartout, warmly; "at the pagoda of Pillaji, where they were on the point of burning their victim."

The judge stared with astonishment, and the priests were stupefied.

"What victim?" said Judge Obadiah. "Burn whom? In Bombay itself?"

"Bombay?" cried Passepartout.

"Certainly. We are not talking of the pagoda of Pillaji, but of the pagoda of Malabar Hill, at Bombay."

"And as a proof," added the clerk, "here are the desecrator's very shoes, which he left behind him."

Whereupon he placed a pair of shoes on his desk.

"My shoes!" cried Passepartout, in his surprise permitting this imprudent exclamation to escape him.

The confusion of master and man, who had quite forgotten the affair at Bombay, for which they were now detained at Calcutta, may be imagined.

Fix the detective, had foreseen the advantage which Passepartout's escapade gave him, and, delaying his departure for twelve hours, had consulted the priests of Malabar Hill. Knowing that the English authorities dealt very severely with this kind of misdemeanour, he promised them a goodly sum in damages, and sent them forward to Calcutta by the next train. Owing to the delay caused by the rescue of the young widow, Fix and the priests reached the Indian capital before Mr. Fogg and his servant, the magistrates having been already warned by a dispatch to arrest them should they arrive. Fix's disappointment when he learned that Phileas Fogg had not made his appearance in Calcutta may be imagined. He made up his mind that the robber had stopped somewhere on the route and taken refuge in the southern provinces. For twenty-four hours Fix watched the station with feverish anxiety; at last he was rewarded by seeing Mr. Fogg and Passepartout arrive, accompanied by a young woman, whose presence he was wholly at a loss to explain. He hastened for a policeman; and this was how the party came to be arrested and brought before Judge Obadiah.

Had Passepartout been a little less preoccupied, he would have espied the detective ensconced in a corner of the court-room, watching the proceedings with an interest easily understood; for the warrant had failed to reach him at Calcutta, as it had done at Bombay and Suez.

Judge Obadiah had unfortunately caught Passepartout's rash exclamation, which the poor fellow would have given the world to recall.

"The facts are admitted?" asked the judge.

"Admitted," replied Mr. Fogg, coldly.

"Inasmuch," resumed the judge, "as the English law protects equally and sternly the religions of the Indian people, and as the man Passepartout has admitted that he violated the sacred pagoda of Malabar Hill, at Bombay, on the 20th of October, I condemn the said Passepartout to imprisonment for fifteen days and a fine of three hundred pounds."

"Three hundred pounds!" cried Passepartout, startled at the largeness of the sum.

"Silence!" shouted the constable.

"And inasmuch," continued the judge, "as it is not proved that the act was not done by the connivance of the master with the servant, and as the master in any case must be held responsible for the acts of his paid servant, I condemn Phileas Fogg to a week's imprisonment and a fine of one hundred and fifty pounds."

Fix rubbed his hands softly with satisfaction; if Phileas Fogg could be detained in Calcutta a week, it would be more than time for the warrant to arrive. Passepartout was stupefied. This sentence ruined his master. A wager of twenty thousand pounds lost, because he, like a precious fool, had gone into that abominable pagoda!

Phileas Fogg, as self-composed as if the judgment did not in the least concern him, did not even lift his eyebrows while it was being pronounced. Just as the clerk was calling the next case, he rose, and said, "I offer bail."

"You have that right," returned the judge.

Fix's blood ran cold, but he resumed his composure when he heard the judge announce that the bail required for each prisoner would be one thousand pounds.

"I will pay it at once," said Mr. Fogg, taking a roll of bank-bills from the carpet-bag, which Passepartout had by him, and placing them on the clerk's desk.

"This sum will be restored to you upon your release from prison," said the judge. "Meanwhile, you are liberated on bail."

"Come!" said Phileas Fogg to his servant.

"But let them at least give me back my shoes!" cried Passepartout angrily.

"Ah, these are pretty dear shoes!" he muttered, as they were handed to him. "More than a thousand pounds apiece; besides, they pinch my feet."

Mr. Fogg, offering his arm to Aouda, then departed, followed by the crestfallen Passepartout. Fix still nourished hopes that the robber would not, after all, leave the two thousand pounds behind him, but would decide to serve out his week in jail, and issued forth on Mr. Fogg's traces. That gentleman took a carriage, and the party were soon landed on one of the quays.

The Rangoon was moored half a mile off in the harbour, its signal of departure hoisted at the mast-head. Eleven o'clock was striking; Mr. Fogg was an hour in advance of time. Fix saw them leave the carriage and push off in a boat for the steamer, and stamped his feet with disappointment.

"The rascal is off, after all!" he exclaimed. "Two thousand pounds sacrificed! He's as prodigal as a thief! I'll follow him to the end of the world if necessary; but, at the rate he is going on, the stolen money will soon be exhausted."

The detective was not far wrong in making this conjecture. Since leaving London, what with travelling expenses, bribes, the purchase of the elephant, bails, and fines, Mr. Fogg had already spent more than five thousand pounds on the way, and the percentage of the sum recovered from the bank robber promised to the detectives, was rapidly diminishing.

Chapter XVI. IN WHICH FIX DOES NOT SEEM TO UNDERSTAND IN THE LEAST WHAT IS SAID TO HIM
Chapter XIV. IN WHICH PHILEAS FOGG DESCENDS THE WHOLE LENGTH OF THE BEAUTIFUL VALLEY OF THE GANGES WITHOUT EVER THINKING OF SEEING IT

Footnotes

  1. verb, present tens form: being reduced; lessened; made smaller

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  2. If you recall, the detectives who were searching for the bank robber were promised a reward of a percentage of the recovered monies: if the robbery money is spent, then the reward percentage will yield less actual reward money since the percentage is fixed though the recovered amount is variable.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  3. Though it was not explicitly stated earlier, along with the bail money, Fogg also paid the fines that were part of Judge Obidiah's sentence: three hundred pounds fine for Passepartout and one hundred and fifty pounds for Fogg. These are the fines that were allotted to the priests of the Malabar pagoda by way of damages awarded to them by the judge.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  4. noun: a theory based on observation or on guesswork but without evidence or support for it; a speculation

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  5. Fix observes that Fogg is so prodigal--spending money so wastefully--that there may not be any bank money to recover by the time Fogg is finally arrested.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  6. In his determination to arrest Fogg as the London bank thief, Fix here vows to follow him as far and as long it takes to arrest him.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  7. adjective: wasteful; reckless; extravagant; careless of money

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  8. Fix realizes that Fogg is walking away from the two thousand pound bail money and will never return with Passepartout to serve the prison time, thus the bail money is sacrificed to the courts, which will eventually take custody of it after Fogg never returns.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  9. Detective Fix displays a temperamental display of frustrated emotion.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  10. They have to be rowed in a boat out to the steamer packet because it is moored out in the roads of the harbor, not moored in the harbor at a quay or dock.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  11. Ships used various flags to signify its intentions as well as its identity so that people ashore and other ships might know what to expect (this is the same reason we signal our intentions with lights while driving today, so pedestrians and other cars know our intentions).

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  12. verb: a ship secured in a particular place (e.g., a quay, a harbor road, etc) by anchors, lines or cables

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  13. The name of the packet they are to take to their next destination, with Aouda traveling with Fogg and Passepartout.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  14. Left the courtroom after Fogg at a discrete distance to follow Fogg.

    issued forth, phrasal verb: to come out from a place

    on someone's traces, figure of speech: probably refers to the traces (two straps) of a carriage that attach to a horses harness figuratively representative of control; might be the path of traces left by someone's footsteps

    In either case for "traces," Fix was following Fogg with an intent to ascertain his movements and intentions.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  15. verb: to cherish, foster or keep a thought or hope actively held

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  16. adjective: having a dropping head (or head crest, if a bird) indicating being dejected and dispirited; shamed and discouraged

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  17. It was standard etiquette that a gentleman offers his arm (extends his arm with elbow bent) to a woman when there is any sort of questionable passage to make while walking. This is partly due to offsetting the more flimsy nature of women's shoes and partly due to providing physical or emotional support in difficulties.

    For Aouda, leaving a courtroom in which she was in dread of being prosecuted for fleeing a sutee would qualify as a difficult passage for her to make as she walked out (probably with knees shaking). 

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  18. Passepartout's "pretty dear shoes" are too tight for him and make his feet hurt. This is what might be called a painful irony.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  19. They are no longer in custody as prisoners and are free to go at full liberty (with no restrictions).

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  20. Since Fogg and Passepartout are released from fulfilling prison time at present because Fogg has paid bail for both, thus both are released from custody, this means that the bail money will be returned to Fogg at the end of the allotted prison time of the sentence, which was 15 days for Passepartout and 7 days for Fogg, if and when the time is actually served. The alternative is that neither will serve prison time and that the bail money will be kept by the court; it will be forfeited to the court. In short, Fogg is sacrificing two thousand pounds for their freedom so he can keep on schedule to win the Reform Club wager.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  21. This is a very large sum of money and Fix feels confident that Fogg will not be willing or able to pay such high bail for himself and Passepartout.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  22. idiom: meaning, to feel suddenly horrified or frightened; to feel alarm or dread at something adverse that is about to happen; i.e., Fix feels sudden alarm and dread about the possibility that Fogg will not be required to serve prison time

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  23. Fogg is offering to pay a sum of money so that he and Passepartout might be released from custody and therefore not serve the prison time sentenced.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  24. adjective: being calm, cool, collected; composed; undisturbed

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  25. adjective: repentant and hateful; loathsome; detestable

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  26. adjective, outdated: someone who is flagrantly, overtly, undisguisedly something unfavorable, e.g., a flagrant fool

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  27. noun: a kind of police officer with judicial responsibilities, like keeping order in a courtroom

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  28. verb, infinitive form: to summon a return; to call back

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  29. idiom: **meaning **wanting with deep earnestness and with a desire to pay a high price for something if only it were something that a price could be paid for, *e.g., hasty words cannot be recalled no matter how high a price someone might be willing to pay *

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  30. adjective: hasty; without adequate consideration; without forethought

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  31. The warrant of arrest for Fogg from London issued, or to be issued, by the police commissioner of London.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  32. adjective: engrossed in private thought thus unobservant of things around about

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  33. Made prisoners under arrest and made to appear before the judge.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  34. Completely unable to explain or account for: he had no idea of how or where they might have been joined by young a woman.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  35. Restless, uncontrolled excitement with distress and uneasiness of mind that is the result of fear.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  36. Had not yet made his appearance since they detoured to take time to rescue Aouda, thus arriving later than expected.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  37. An official communication in the form of a message or letter.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  38. Minor judges who hear minor cases of lawbreaking and have the authority to issue warrants of arrest for suspects and lawbreakers.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  39. Fix himself directed the priests to take the train to Calcutta so they might apprehend Fogg and Passepartout before they left India (it is possible that the narrator means that Fix actually paid the priests' train fares in his desperation to apprehend Fogg as the London bank robber). We learn later that Fix also goes to Calcutta himself.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  40. Fix promised the priests of Malabar pagoda that, once Fogg and Passepartout (as his employer "master", Fogg was legally responsible for Passepartout's behavior) had been convicted of the misdemeanor (minor local crime), Fogg would be required to pay a large fine that would go to the priests.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  41. Fix could see ahead to an advantage to be gained by him in his pursuit of Fogg as the London bank robber because of the mistake and crime Passepartout committed in Bombay.

    foresee, verb: to speculate or know the occurrence of something in advance of its actual happening

    escapade, noun: a wild, reckless adventure or misadventure (misadventure: an adventure with a mishap or bad result)

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  42. The confusion of both Fogg and Passepartout at this news: they were confused because, their thoughts being preoccupied with the matter of sutee rescue, they didn't think of the earlier matter.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  43. A phrase suggesting that Passepartout did not plan to say anything but, taken by surprise, he could not help himself from speaking out.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  44. An unwise outburst.

    This was unwise because of the implied admission of guilt.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  45. noun: one desecrates a holy and sacred place; one who defiles, violates, dishonors a sacred and holy place, like a temple

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  46. This is the pagoda where Passepartout went sightseeing in Bombay and violated the sacred restrictions about entrance to the temple pagoda; it is where he was attacked by priests and where he lost his shoes and parcels early on in their journey.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  47. The pagoda of Pillaji and the sutee were far away from Bombay.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  48. Passepartout alludes to the attempted sutee with Aouda as the victim.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  49. The location of the attempted sutee and the successful rescue of Aouda.

    If you recall, Passepartout had an earlier encounter at a temple/pagoda where he lost his shoes and parcels when he was sight seeing.

    At this moment, our heroes think only of the pagoda of the sutee, but is there a possibility the earlier pagoda is the actual one in the complaint?

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  50. verb, present tense: referring to something for information

    Fogg was referring to his watch for information as to how much time he had left to catch the packet (the commuter ship as described above) to their next destination.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  51. verb: to outrage; to treat irreverently; to treat disrespectfully. archaic usage: violated or dishonored someone, something or someplace

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  52. adjective (also verb), archaic usage: describing a place that has been set aside, devoted to religious purposes and made sacred and holy

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  53. A symbolic and fictitious name that may refer to a light, layered savory pastry filled with oyster. The symbolism would suggest that clerk Oysterpuff is a bit of an "airhead" who isn't very substantial mentally.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  54. A Biblical name and a book in the Hebrew Scriptures, also called the Old Testament. The name means "servant of Yaweh," and the book written by Obadiah tells of the judgement of some and the restoration of others.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  55. noun, outdated usage: any room in a building set apart for specific use (not a common room or multipurpose room)

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  56. adjective: when said of a building, rooms that are connected; rooms that are joined with a passage between

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  57. Fog is saying that, whether the police have detained them because Aouda is a wanted woman or not, he will not go and leave her to her fate; he will stay with her and see her through whatever involves her (if anything does), then take her safely to Hong Kong.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  58. verb: used of **time **to signify the passage of time; time has gone by or passed by

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  59. adjective: charged with a crime or other wrongdoing or a fault

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  60. A accusation of having violated the holy sanctity of a place.

    [Are you beginning to guess what is behind this?]

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  61. noun: dishonest scoundrel; unprincipled, dishonorable villain

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  62. Those issuing the complaint for which Fogg and Passepartout have been detained and made prisoners.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  63. Extremely fast.

    Passepartout is thinking, of course, that they will miss their ship.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  64. Jules Verne introduces humor through the characters of Judge Obadiah and Clerk Oysterpuff.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  65. British custom, dating from 1660 during the Restoration, is for judges and attorneys to wear wigs in the court of law. In recent times the custom has undergone modification in which wigs are not required in non-criminal cases, but this custom can be seen in television shows of all eras, like in an episode of Matlock that was set in England.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  66. noun: a minor level judge who administers certain portions of the law

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  67. verb: to have confidence restored; to become assured again

    Passepartout did not have his confidence and assurance restored by Fogg's words even though he muttered comforting words to himself.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  68. archaic French slang: by god; by Jove (supreme god of the Roman pantheon of gods)

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  69. Recall that according to British colonial law, satis (also suttees) were illegal, therefore someone prevented from completing one would not be able to request justice from the law.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  70. noun: those presenting a complaint, especially before a court of law

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  71. This indicates that the modest-looking house may have been used for other purposes than living.

    It is interesting to note that our understanding of "mansion" contradicts the norm of "modest-looking" unless "mansion" is used here in the archaic sense of simply a dwelling place.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  72. A house that is of good quality but not pretentious or overly elegant; a house where one would expect good quality, successful people to live.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  73. The Indian palkigahri in which Fogg, Passepartout, Aouda and the police officer are riding.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  74. noun: carriage(s) drawn by horses and having servants in attendance to drive the horses and ride at the back of the carriage

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  75. noun: tall, upright poles probably with flags attached at the top; nautical having sails attached

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  76. verb (present participle form): to be abundant in something; to exist in abundance

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  77. The residential areas of the colonizers, contrasted sharply against the slum areas of the indigenous peoples.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  78. adjective: extremely dirty person or place; extremely poor, neglected person or place

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  79. A local term for the slum housing of native indigenous peoples in a colonized area, which, here, is the living quarters of poor Indians.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  80. Territory where she might be kidnapped by vengeful relatives or priests or fakirs, then sent to her death.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison

  81. Fogg is accompanying Auda to Hong Kong, you may recall, in order for her to reunite with family she has there who will keep her safe from those who still desire her widow's death.

    — Karen P.L. Hardison