Script:
A young man of thirty advanced and bowed. ''You are a Frenchman, I believe?'' asked Phileas Fogg. ''And your name is John?'' ''John, if M. pleases,'' replied the newcomer, ''Jean Passepartout, a surname which has clung to me because I have a natural aptness for going out of one business into another. Finding myself out of place, and hearing that M. Phileas Fogg was the most exact and settled gentleman in the United Kingdom, I have come to M. in the hopes of living with him a tranquil life, and forgetting even the name of Passepartout.'' ''Passepartout suits me,'' responded Mr. Fogg. ''You are well recommended to me. I hear a good report of you. Now from this moment, twenty-nine minutes after eleven a.m. this Wednesday, 2nd October, you are in my service.'' ''Well, Ralph,'' said Thomas Flanagan, ''what about that robbery?'' ''Oh,'' replied Stuart, ''the bank will lose the money.'' ''On the contrary,'' broke in Ralph, ''I hope we may put our hands on the robber. Skillful detectives have been sent to all the principal ports of America and the continent, and he'll be a clever fellow if he slips through their fingers.'' ''But have you got the robber's description?'' asked Stuart. ''In the first place, he is no robber at all,'' returned Ralph positively. ''What! A fellow who makes off with fifty-five thousand pounds no robber?'' ''No. The Daily Telegraph says that he is a gentleman. It was Phileas Fogg, whose head now emerged from behind his newspapers, who made this remark.'' ''Where could he go, then?'' ''I don't know that. The world is big enough.'' ''It was once,'' said Phileas Fogg in a low tone. ''What do you mean by once? Has the world grown smaller?'' ''Certainly,'' returned Ralph. ''I agree with Mr. Fogg. The world has grown smaller since a man can now go round it ten times more quickly than a hundred years ago.'' ''You have a strange way, Ralph, of proving that the world has grown smaller. So because you can go round it in three months?'' ''In eighty days,'' interrupted Phileas Fogg. ''That is true, gentlemen,'' added John Sullivan. ''Only eighty days, now that the section between Rothwell and Allahabad on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway has been opened. Shall we go?'' ''Heaven preserve me! But I would wager four thousand pounds that such a journey, made under these conditions, is impossible.'' ''Quite possible, on the contrary,'' returned Mr. Fogg. ''Well, make it, then.'' ''The journey round the world in eighty days?'' ''Yes.'' ''I should like nothing better.'' ''So you say, Consul,'' asked he for the twentieth time, ''that this steamer is never behind time?'' ''No, sir,'' replied Mr. Fix, ''replied the Consul. She was bespoken yesterday at Port Said, and the rest of the way is of no account to such a craft. I repeat that the Mongolia has been in advance of the time required by the Company's regulations, but really I don't see how, from the description you have, you will be able to recognise your man, even if he is on board the Mongolia.'' ''A man rather feels the presence of these fellows, Consul, than recognises them. I've arrested more than one of these gentlemen in my time, and if my thief is on board I'll answer for it.'' He rang for the landlord, and, on his appearance, said, fixing his clear eyes upon him, ''Is this Rabbit, sir?'' ''Yes, my lord,'' the rogue boldly replied, ''Rabbit from the jungles.'' ''And this Rabbit did not mew when he was killed?'' ''Mew, my lord. What, a Rabbit mew? I swear to you.'' ''Be so good, landlord, as not to swear. But remember this. Cats were formerly considered in India as sacred animals. That was a good time. For the cats, my lord? Perhaps for the travellers as well?'' After which Mr. Fogg quietly continued his dinner. ''All this is an evasion,'' cried Stamp Proctor. ''Now or never.'' ''Very good. You are going to New York?'' ''No.'' ''To Chicago?'' ''No.'' ''To Omaha?'' ''What difference is it to you? Do you know Plum Creek?'' ''No,'' replied Mr. Fogg. ''It's the next station. A train'll be there in an hour, and we'll stop there ten minutes. In ten minutes several revolver shots could be exchanged.'' ''Very well,'' said Mr. Fogg. ''I will stop at Plum Creek.'' ''And I guess you'll stay there, too,'' added the American insolently. ''Who knows?''