هند

CHAPTER 4 - INDIA

Phileas Fogg looked at the timetable. ‘The Mongolia will arrive in Bombay on 22nd October’ he wrote in his little black book.

But she arrived two days early because there was a north west wind behind her. He wrote ‘two days early’ in the little black book, but he did not smile.

At 4/30 in the afternoon of 20th October, everybody left the ship and went into Bombay.

‘The train from Bombay to Calcutta leaves at 8 o’clock,’

Phileas Fogg told Passepartout.’ Be at the railway station before then/Then he went to the passport office and had dinner at the railway station.

Fix went to the police in Bombay and asked about the warrant. He could not take Phileas Fogg back to England without a warrant. But the warrant was not there. It was in the post from England, so Fix could do nothing.

Passepartout looked at Bombay. Everything was interesting to the young man. He stood outside the fine temple at Malabar.

He liked it, so he went inside But Passepartout didn’t know that you can’t go into a temple in India in your shoes.

‘This temple is really lovely,’ thought Passepartout. He looked at the beautiful things in there. Suddenly three men in orange clothes started to hit him. Then they threw him to the floor and took his shoes.

They were very angry. They shouted something, but Passepartout didn’t understand the language. But the Frenchman was young and strong. He pushed the men away and ran out of the temple into the street.

At 7/55, five minutes before the train left, Passepartout arrived at the station without his shoes, without a hat, and without the bag of new clothes. He found Phileas Fogg at the dinner table.

Fix was at the station restaurant too. He sat behind Phileas Fogg and watched him. He listened to Passepartout and Phileas Fogg. Passepartout moved his arms up and down when he told Phileas Fogg about the temple.

The detective smiled.’ So the servant did something wrong in this country,’ he thought.’ I can use that. The thief will have to stay in India. And I can wait for the warrant from England.’

Phileas Fogg and Passepartout sat on the train through the night, the next day and the next night. Everything was different outside from one minute to the next minute. Passepartout watched the many changes through the window. They were very interesting to him. Phileas Fogg was not interested.

At 8 o’clock in the morning, on 22nd October, the train stopped near the station at Rothal. A man from the railway came to the train window.

‘Everybody, get out of the train please,’ he called. ‘ Why do we have to get out ?’ asked Phileas Fogg. ‘Because there is no more railway after this. It begins again at Allahabad, about fifty miles from here.’

‘But it’s in The Times’, said Phileas Fogg. He had the centre page of the newspaper with him. ‘Look. The paper says “ The railway between Rothal and Allahabad is open now.”’

‘The paper is wrong.’

‘But your company sells tickets from Bombay to Calcutta,’

the Englishman said.

‘Oh, yes,’ the railway man answered.’ But everybody knows that they have to go from Rothal to Allahabad on foot or on a horse.’

He was right. The other people in the train knew about the railway. They left the train quickly and went to the village. They took all the horses.

‘We’ll walk,’ said Phileas Fogg.

Passepartout looked down at his feet. He didn’t have any shoes. His shoes were in the Malabar temple in Bombay.

‘There’s an elephant over there,’ he said.

The man with the elephant smiled a wide smile. A man with an elephant is a rich man when there isn’t a railway. Phileas Fogg started at ten pounds an hour. No? Twenty? No? Forty?

No.

In the end, the man sold the elephant to Phileas Fogg for two thousand pounds.

‘Elephant meat is expensive,’ Passepartout thought.

Next, they had to find a guide. They didn’t know the way to Allahabad. That was easier. A young Indian from the village saw them with the elephant.

‘Do you want a guide?’ he asked. He spoke English, too.

Every two hours, the guide stopped the elephant. It ate and drank some water. Phileas Fogg, Passepartout and the guide sat under a tree, out of the sun. Then they started again. They moved quickly, and climbed higher.

By 8 o’clock in the evening, they were over the Vindhia mountains. They were half-way to Allahabad. The guide stopped for the night.

They started again at 6 o’clock the next morning, and at 4 o’clock in the afternoon they were near Allahabad.

They were in some trees when suddenly the elephant stopped. They heard the sound of singing and loud music. The guide drove the elephant into the thickest trees.

‘It is a dead man,’ said the guide, quietly.’ They are taking a dead man to a temple. Tomorrow they will start a fire and put the dead man on the fire.’

Through the trees, they saw a lot of people. Some men wore the same orange clothes as the three men at the Malabar temple.

Some men played music. Some women and children walked behind them. Then they saw a young woman. Some men pushed her in front of them. She was very beautiful, but she was very weak. She couldn’t walk very well. Men at the back carried a dead man in fine clothes.

‘The dead man was important,’ said the guide. ‘ The young woman was his wife, and they will put her on the fire tomorrow with her dead husband.’

‘What?’ said Phileas Fogg. ‘Are you saying that this woman wants to die with her husband ?’

‘Sometimes a wife wants to die when her husband dies,’

answered the guide. ‘But this young woman does not want to die. Those people, the people in the orange clothes, say she has to do it.’

‘No!’ said Passepartout.’ But can’t she get away from them?’

‘They put something in her food,’ the guide said.’ Look — she is very tired. Then she will sleep.’

‘We’ll get her out of here,’ said Phileas Fogg.

‘Please think before you try that,’ said the guide. ‘These people are dangerous.’

‘But, Mr. Fogg, the bet .’ said Passepartout.

Phileas Fogg looked at the timetable. ‘I am one day early.

We can use the day well, and get the young woman away from here.’

‘Well,’ said the guide. ‘We can follow them, but we cannot go too near. They are going to a temple about two miles from here.

I know about the young wife, too. Her name is Aouda. Her father had a big company in Bombay.

But her father and mother died and she had to marry that old man. We cannot do anything now. But I will help you when it gets dark.’