Around the World in Eighty Days - CHAPTER 3

Phileas Fogg, reached the Reform Club, an imposing edifice in Pall Mall. He repaired at once to the dining room and took his place at the habitual table. His breakfast is minutely described. He then spent a considerable amount of time reading newspapers. Dinner passed as breakfast had done, and Mr. Fogg reappeared in the reading room. Mr. Fogg’s usual partners at whist appear and they all begin to discuss a famous robbery that had recently taken place at a bank in London. Phileas joins this conversation when he says that - ‘The Daily Telegraph says that he (the robber) is a gentleman."

The affair, which formed the subject, was this - A package of banknotes, to the value of fifty-five thousand pounds, had been taken from the principal cashier’s table. When the money was not found even at five o’clock, the amount was passed to the account of profit and loss. As soon as the robbery was discovered, picked detectives hastened off to various ports, inspired by the proffered reward of two thousand pounds, and five per cent on the sum that might be recovered. There were real grounds for supposing that the thief did not belong to a professional band but was a gentleman. The papers and clubs were full of the affair, and everywhere people were discussing the probabilities of a successful pursuit; and the Reform Club was especially agitated, several of its members being Bank officials.

Ralph and Stuart, both whist players argue whether the thief would be caught or not. Stuart questions - ‘Where could he (the thief) go, then?’’ Ralph replies - "Oh, I don’t know that. The world is big enough." It is here that Fogg once again joins the conversation, when he says - "It was once,". Phileas Fogg is questioned as to what he means by ‘once’ and then the conversation proceeds in such a way that Mr. Fogg declares that it is possible to go around the world in eighty days. John Sullivan supports this conjecture and shows the group the estimate made by the Daily Telegraph that claims that a journey round the world can be done in eighty days. Mr. Stuart thinks that the journey may sound plausible theoretically but is not feasible practically. He dares Mr. Fogg to complete such a feat himself and in his excitement, he puts a wager of four thousand. Phileas Fogg insists that he can carry out the exercise and says - "A true Englishman doesn’t joke when he is talking about so serious a thing as a wager," He bets twenty thousand pounds against anyone that he will make the tour of the world in eighty days or less. "We accept," replied Messrs. Stuart, Fallentin, Sullivan, Flanagan, and Ralph, after consulting each other.

Mr. Fogg decides to take the train to Dover that very evening and tells his challengers that he would be back in the Reform Club, on Saturday, the 21 ^st of December.

A memorandum of the wager was at once drawn up and signed by the six parties. The party offered to suspend the game so that Mr. Fogg might make his preparations for departure but the latter is calm and insists on playing some more.