by Jules Verne
Chapter 31
Fix the Detective Considerably Furthersthe Interests of Phileas Fogg
Phileas Fogg found himself twenty hours behind time.Passepartout, the involuntary cause of this delay, was desperate.He had ruined his master!
At this moment the detective approached Mr. Fogg, and, lookinghim intently in the face, said: "Seriously, sir, are you in greathaste?"
"Quite seriously."
"I have a purpose in asking," resumed Fix. "Is it absolutelynecessary that you should be in New York on the 11th, before nineo'clock in the evening, the time that the steamer leaves forLiverpool?"
"It is absolutely necessary."
"And, if your journey had not been interrupted by these Indians,you would have reached New York on the morning of the 11th?"
"Yes, with eleven hours to spare before the steamer left."
"Good! You are therefore twenty hours behind. Twelve from twentyleaves eight. You must regain eight hours. Do you wish to try todo so?"
"On foot?" asked Mr. Fogg.
"No; on a sledge," replied Fix. "On a sledge with sails. A manhas proposed such a method to me."
It was the man who had spoken to Fix during the night, and whoseoffer he had refused.
Phileas Fogg did not reply at once, but Fix, having pointed outthe man, who was walking up and down in front of the station, Mr.Fogg went up to him. An instant after, Mr. Fogg and the American,whose name was Mudge, entered a hut built just below the fort.
There Mr. Fogg examined a curious vehicle, a kind of frame on twolong beams, a little raised in front like the runners of asledge, and upon which there was room for five or six persons. Ahigh mast was fixed on the frame, held firmly by metalliclashings, to which was attached a large brigantine sail. Thismast held an iron stay upon which to hoist a jib-sail. Behind, asort of rudder served to guide the vehicle. It was, in short, asledge rigged like a sloop. During the winter, when the trainsare blocked up by the snow, these sledges make extremely rapidjourneys across the frozen plains from one station to another.Provided with more sails than a cutter, and with the wind behindthem, they slip over the surface of the prairies with a speedequal if not superior to that of the express trains.
Mr. Fogg readily made a bargain with the owner of thisland-craft. The wind was favorable, being fresh, and blowing fromthe west. The snow had hardened, and Mudge was very confident ofbeing able to transport Mr. Fogg in a few hours to Omaha. Thencethe trains eastward run frequently to Chicago and New York. Itwas not impossible that the lost time might yet be recovered, andsuch an opportunity was not to be rejected.
Not wishing to expose Aouda to the discomforts of traveling inthe open air, Mr. Fogg proposed to leave her with Passepartout atFort Kearney, the servant taking upon himself to escort her toEurope by a better route and under more favorable conditions. ButAouda refused to separate from Mr. Fogg, and Passepartout wasdelighted with her decision, for nothing could induce him toleave his master while Fix was with him.
It would be difficult to guess the detective's thoughts. Was thisconviction shaken by Phileas Fogg's return, or did he stillregard him as an exceedingly shrewd rascal, who, his journeyround the world completed, would think himself absolutely safe inEngland? Perhaps Fix's opinion of Phileas Fogg was somewhatmodified, but he was nevertheless resolved to do his duty, and tohasten the return of the whole party to England as much aspossible.
At eight o'clock the sledge was ready to start. The passengerstook their places on it, and wrapped themselves up closely intheir traveling-cloaks. The two great sails were hoisted, andunder the pressure of the wind the sledge slid over the hardenedsnow with a velocity of forty miles an hour.
The distance between Fort Kearney and Omaha, as the birds fly, isat most two hundred miles. If the wind held good, the distancemight be covered in five hours. If no accident happened thesledge might reach Omaha by one o'clock.
What a journey! The travelers, huddled close together, could notspeak for the cold, intensified by the rapidity at which theywere going. The sledge sped on as lightly as a boat over thewaves. When the breeze came skimming the earth the sledge seemedto be lifted off the ground by its sails. Mudge, who was at therudder, kept in a straight line, and by a turn of his handchecked the lurches which the vehicle had a tendency to make. Allthe sails were up, and the jib was so arranged as not to screenthe brigantine. A top-mast was hoisted, and another jib, held outto the wind, added its force to the other sails. Although thespeed could not be exactly estimated, the sledge could not begoing at less than forty miles an hour.
"If nothing breaks," said Mudge, "we shall get there!"
Mr. Fogg had made it Mudge's interest to reach Omaha within thetime agreed on by the offer of a handsome reward.
The prairie, across which the sledge was moving in a straightline, was as flat as a sea. It seemed like a vast frozen lake.The railroad which ran through this section ascended from thesouthwest to the northwest by Great Island, Columbus, animportant Nebraska town, Schuyler and Fremont, to Omaha. Itfollowed throughout the right bank of the Platte River. Thesledge, shortening this route, took a chord of the arc describedby the railway. Mudge was not afraid of being stopped by thePlatte River, because it was frozen. The road, then, was quiteclear of obstacles, and Phileas Fogg had but two things to fear--anaccident to the sledge, and a change or calm in the wind.
But the breeze, far from lessening its force, blew as if to bendthe mast, which, however, the metallic lashings held firmly.These lashings, like the chords of a stringed instrument,resounded as if vibrated by a violin bow. The sledge slid alongin the midst of a plaintively intense melody.
"Those chords give the fifth and the octave," said Mr. Fog.
These were the only words he uttered during the journey. Aouda,cosily packed in furs and cloaks, was sheltered as much aspossible from the attacks of the freezing wind. As forPassepartout, his face was as red as the sun's disc when it setsin the mist, and he laboriously inhaled the biting air. With hisnatural buoyancy of spirits, he began to hope again. They wouldreach New York on the evening, if not on the morning, of the11th, and there was still some chance that it would be before thesteamer sailed for Liverpool.
Passepartout even felt a strong desire to grasp his ally, Fix, bythe hand. He remembered that it was the detective who procuredthe sledge, the only means of reaching Omaha in time; but,checked by some presentiment he kept his usual reserve. Onething, however, Passepartout would never forget, and that was thesacrifice which Mr. Fogg had made, without hesitation, to rescuehim from the Sioux. Mr. Fogg had risked his fortune and his life.No! His servant would never forget that!
While each of the party was absorbed in reflections sodifferent, the sledge flew past over the vast carpet of snow. Thecreeks it passed over were not perceived. Fields and steamsdisappeared under the uniform whiteness. The plain was absolutelydeserted. Between the Union Pacific road and the branch, whichunites Kearney with Saint Joseph it formed a great uninhabitedisland. Neither village, station, nor fort appeared. From time totime they sped by some phantom-like tree, whose white skeletontwisted and rattled in the wind. Sometimes flocks of wild birdsrose, or bands of gaunt, famished, ferocious prairie-wolves ranhowling after the sledge. Passepartout, revolver in hand, heldhimself ready to fire on those which came too near. Had anaccident then happened b the sledge, the travelers, attacked bythese beasts, would have been in the most terrible danger. Butthe sledge held on its even course, soon gained on the wolves,and before long left the howling band at a safe distance behind.
About noon Mudge perceived by certain landmarks that he wascrossing the Platte River. He said nothing, but he felt certainthat he was now within twenty miles of Omaha. In less than anhour he left the rudder and furled his sails, while the sledge,carried forward by the great impetus the wind had given it, wenton half a mile further with its sails unspread.
It stopped at last, and Mudge, pointing to a mass of roofs whitewith snow, said: "We are there!"
Arrived! Arrived at the station which is in daily
communication,by numerous trains, with the Atlantic seaboard!
Passepartout and Fix jumped off, stretched their stiffened limbs,and aided Mr. Fogg and the young woman to descend from thesledge. Phileas Fogg generously rewarded Mudge, whose handPassepartout warmly grasped and the party directed their steps tothe Omaha railway station.
The Pacific Railroad proper finds its terminus at this importantNebraska town. Omaha is connected with Chicago by the Chicago andRock Island Railroad, which runs directly east, and passes fiftystations.
A train was ready to start when Mr. Fogg and his party reachedthe station, and they only had time to get into the cars. Theyhad seen nothing of Omaha, but Passepartout confessed to himselfthat this was not to be regretted, as they were not traveling tosee the sights.
The train passed rapidly across the State of Iowa by CouncilBluffs, Des Moines and Iowa City. During the night it crossed theMississippi at Davenport, and by Rock Island entered Illinois.The next day, which was the 10th, at four o'clock in the evening,it reached Chicago, already risen from its ruins, and moreproudly seated than ever on the borders of its beautiful LakeMichigan.
Nine hundred miles separated Chicago from New York, but trainsrun frequently from Chicago. Mr. Fogg passed at once from one tothe other, and the locomotive of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne andChicago Railway left at full speed, as if it fully comprehendedthat that gentleman had no time to lose. It raced over Indiana,Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey like a flash, rushing throughtowns with antique names, some of which had streets andcar-tracks, but as yet no houses. At last the Hudson came intoview, and, at a quarter-past eleven in the evening of the 11th,the train stopped in the station on the right bank of the river,before the very pier of the Cunard line.
The China, for Liverpool, had started three-quarters of an hourbefore!