CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Passepartout Does Not Succeed in Making Anybody Listen to Reason

The train passed northward for an hour, having completed nearly nine hundred miles from San Francisco. From this point it went east towards the Wasatch Mountains.

Passepartout grew more and more impatient as they went on. Fix wanted to get out of this difficult area, and was more anxious than Phineas Fogg himself to set foot in England.

The next day, 7th December, they stopped for a quarter of an hour at a station. Snow had fallen during the night, but it did not stop them. The bad weather, however, annoyed Passepartout.

He said to himself, "Why did my master make this journey in winter? Couldn't he have waited for the good season to increase his chances?"

While the Frenchman worried about the weather, Aouda had fears from a totally different cause.

Several passengers had got off at Green River, and were walking up and down the platforms. Among these Aouda recognized Colonel Stamp Proctor, who had been so rude to Phineas Fogg in San Francisco. The young woman went back inside quickly. She liked the man who treated her so nicely, even if he was cold. He did not understand, perhaps, what she felt. She called it thanks, but it was more than that. It was necessary that Phineas Fogg did not see Colonel Proctor.

Aouda waited until Mr Fogg fell asleep to tell Fix and Passepartout.

"That Proctor on this train!" cried Fix. "Well, don't worry. Before he settles with Mr Fogg, he'll have to deal with me!"

"Mr Fix," replied Aouda, "Mr Fogg will not allow you to help him. He said that he would come back to America to find this man. Should he see Colonel Proctor, we could not prevent a terrible problem. He must not see him."

"In four days we shall be in New York. Well, if my master does not leave this car during those four days, we may hope that chance will not bring him face to face with this American. We must, if possible, keep him from leaving."

Mr Fogg woke up soon. The detective had an idea. He said to Mr Fogg, "These are long and slow hours, sir."

"Yes," replied Mr Fogg, "but they pass."

"You were in the habit of playing whist," resumed Fix, "on the steamers."

"Yes; but it would be difficult to do so here. I have neither cards nor partners."

"Oh, but we can easily buy some cards, for they are sold on all the American trains. And as for partners, if madam plays—"

"Certainly, sir," Aouda replied. "I understand whist. It is part of an English education."

"I myself can play."

"As you please, sir," replied Phineas Fogg, happy to continue his favorite game even on the railway.

Passepartout went out to buy the cards. Aouda understood enough, and Mr Fix was quite good at the game.

"Now," thought Passepartout, "we've got him. He won't move."

At eleven in the morning the train reached one of the highest points on the track. After going about two hundred miles, the travelers were at last on a plain.

In a few more hours the Rocky Mountains were crossed. There was reason to hope, then, that no accident would happen on the journey through this difficult country. The snow had stopped falling, and the air became cold. No animals could be seen.

After a comfortable breakfast, Mr Fogg and his partners started the game again. A whistle was heard, and the train stopped. Aouda and Fix feared Mr Fogg might decide to look out, but the gentleman said to his servant, "See what the matter is."

Passepartout rushed out. Thirty or forty passengers were outside, including Colonel Stamp Proctor.

The train had stopped before a red signal. The engineer and conductor were talking with a signal-man. The station-master at Medicine Bow, the next stop, had sent him on.

Passepartout, joining the group, heard the signalman say, "No! You can't pass. The bridge at Medicine Bow is not good, and it would not hold the train."

The bridge was a mile away. According to the signal-man, the bridge was in bad condition. As careless as the Americans usually are, when they are careful there is usually good reason for it.

Passepartout did not want to tell his master this, and did not move.

"Hum!" cried Colonel Proctor. "But we are not going to stay here."

"Colonel," replied the conductor, "we have telegraphed to Omaha for a train, but it is not likely that it will reach Medicine Bow in less than six hours."

"Six hours!" cried Passepartout.

"Certainly," said the conductor. "Besides, it will take us that long to reach Medicine Bow on foot."

"But it is only a mile from here," said one of the passengers.

"Yes, but it's on the other side of the river."

"And we can't cross that in a boat?" asked the colonel.

"That's impossible. It has rained too much, and the river is too dangerous."

The passengers were not happy; they would have to walk fifteen miles over a plain covered in snow.

Passepartout turned to tell his master, when the engineer said, "Gentlemen, perhaps there is a way, after all, to get over."

"On the bridge?"

"On the bridge."

"With our train?"

"With our train."

Passepartout stopped, and listened to the engineer.

"But the bridge is unsafe," said the conductor.

"No matter," replied the engineer. "I think by going at the highest speed we might have a chance of getting over."

"What!" said Passepartout.

But a number of passengers were excited by the idea. Colonel Proctor was very happy, and thought the plan was very good. He told stories about engineers jumping their trains over rivers without bridges.

"We have fifty chances out of a hundred of getting over," said one passenger.

"Eighty! Ninety!"

Passepartout was astonished, and although he was ready to try anything, he thought the experiment was a little too American. "Besides," he thought, "there's a more simple way, and they haven't thought of it."

"Sir," he said to one of the passengers, "I have a simple idea. It might be safer."

"What! Safer!" cried Colonel Proctor. This word made him angry. "At full speed, don't you see, at full speed!"

"I know—I see," said Passepartout, "but it would be safer—"

"Who! What! What's the matter with him?" cried several people.

"Are you afraid?" asked Colonel Proctor.

"I afraid? Very well, I will show these people that a Frenchman can be as American as they!"

"All aboard!" cried the conductor.

"They can't stop me from thinking it would be more natural to cross the bridge oh foot, and let the train come after!"

But no one heard this good thought. The train backed up for nearly a mile, like a jumper. Then, with a whistle, it moved forward. The train increased it speed, and soon it reached a hundred miles an hour.

And they passed over! It was like a flash. No one saw the bridge. The train jumped from one side to the other, and the engineer could not stop it until it had gone five miles past the station. But the train had just passed over the river when the bridge, completely ruined, fell into the river.

(end of section)