Around the World in Eighty Days - CHAPTER 8

Fix soon rejoined Passepartout, who was lounging and looking about on the quay. Fix gets Passepartout talking. Passepartout admits that his master and he have been journeying at a frantic pace and that he never gets a chance to sightsee. Fix offers to take Passepartout to the right shops for shoe and shirt shopping. They go off together and Fix points out that Passepartout’s watch is slow. The valet replies that his watch is a family watch, come down from the time of his great-grandfather and that it doesn’t vary five minutes in the year. To this Fix points out that he had kept London time, which was two hours behind that of Suez. He then advises him to regulate his watch at noon in each country. Passepartout refuses to regulate his watch and returns the watch to its fob with a defiant gesture.

After a few minutes silence, Fix resumes the conversation and learns that Fogg was making a journey round the world and that he was a rich man. He also gets to know that Passepartout did not believe that his master was merely making such a journey for the sake of a bet. The effect of these replies upon the already suspicious and excited detective may be imagined. The hasty departure from London soon after the robbery; the large sum carried by Mr. Fogg; his eagerness to reach distant countries; the pretext of an eccentric and foolhardy bet all confirmed Fix in his theory. He continues to pump poor Passepartout, and learns that he really knew little or nothing of his master, who lived a solitary existence in London, was said to be rich, though no one knew whence came his riches, and was mysterious and impenetrable in his affairs and habits. Fix felt sure that Phileas Fogg would not land at Suez, but was really going on to Bombay.

When Passepartout spoke to Fix about the gas burner that was burning at his expense, Fix didn't pay any attention to Passepartout’s trouble about the gas. He was not listening, but was cogitating a project. Passepartout and he had now reached the shop, where Fix left his companion to make his purchases, after recommending him not to miss the steamer, and hurried back to the consulate. Now that he was fully convinced, Fix had quite recovered his equanimity.

Fix tries to persuade the Consul that he has found the robber. He reports in a few words the most important parts of his conversation with Passepartout. He then proceeds to the telegraph office, from where he sends the dispatch, which we have seen, to the London police office. A quarter of an hour later Fix, with a small bag in his hand, advances on board the Mongolia; and the noble steamer rides out at full steam upon the waters of the Red Sea.