Jules Verne · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Here are the circumstances under which that dispatch concerning the said Phileas Fogg had been sent.
On Wednesday the 9th of October, the steamer Mongolia, of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, was expected at Suez at eleven in the morning—an iron screw steamer with a spardeck, carrying a burden of two thousand eight hundred tons and a nominal power of five hundred horses. The Mongolia ran regularly between Brindisi and Bombay by way of the Suez Canal. She was one of the Company's fastest runners, and the regulation speeds—ten miles an hour from Brindisi to Suez, and nine and fifty-three hundredths from Suez to Bombay—she had always exceeded.
While awaiting the arrival of the Mongolia, two men were walking on the quay amid the crowd of natives and foreigners who throng this town, once a mere village, to which the great work of Monsieur de Lesseps assures a considerable future.
Of these two men, one was the consular agent of the United Kingdom, stationed at Suez, who—in spite of the gloomy forecasts of the British government and the sinister predictions of the engineer Stephenson—saw English ships pass through this canal every day, thus cutting in half the old route from England to the Indies by the Cape of Good Hope.
The other was a small, thin man, of a rather intelligent face, nervous, who contracted his brow muscles with a remarkable persistence. Through his long lashes shone a very keen eye, whose fire he could dim at will. At this moment he was giving certain signs of impatience, coming and going, unable to keep still.
This man was named Fix, and he was one of those "detectives," or English police agents, who had been sent to the various ports after the theft committed at the Bank of England. This Fix was to keep the closest watch on all travelers taking the Suez route, and if one of them seemed suspect to him, to "shadow" him while awaiting a warrant of arrest.
Precisely, two days before, Fix had received from the director of the metropolitan police the description of the presumed perpetrator of the theft. It was that of the distinguished, well-dressed individual who had been observed in the payments hall of the Bank.
The detective, plainly much tempted by the large reward promised in case of success, was therefore awaiting the arrival of the Mongolia with an impatience easy to understand.
"And you say, Consul," he asked for the tenth time, "that this boat can't be long?"
"No, Mr. Fix," the consul replied. "She was sighted yesterday off Port Said, and the hundred and sixty kilometers of the canal are nothing to such a runner. I tell you again that the Mongolia has always earned the reward of twenty-five pounds that the government grants for every twenty-four hours gained over the regulation times."
"This steamer comes straight from Brindisi?" asked Fix.
"From Brindisi itself, where she picked up the India mail, from Brindisi that she left on Saturday at five in the evening. So be patient, she can't be long in arriving. But I really don't see how, with the description you've received, you'll be able to recognize your man, if he's aboard the Mongolia."
"Consul," replied Fix, "those people, one senses them rather than recognizes them. It's a flair one must have, and flair is like a special sense to which hearing, sight, and smell all contribute. In my time I've collared more than one of these gentlemen, and provided my thief is aboard, I promise you he won't slip through my fingers."
"I hope so, Mr. Fix, for it's an important theft."
"A magnificent theft," replied the agent, growing enthusiastic. "Fifty-five thousand pounds! We don't often get such windfalls! Thieves are turning petty! The breed of Sheppards is dying out! Nowadays a man gets himself hanged for a few shillings!"
"Mr. Fix," replied the consul, "you speak in such a way that I heartily wish you success; but, I repeat, given the conditions you're in, I fear it may be difficult. You do realize that, from the description you've received, this thief looks exactly like an honest man."
"Consul," the police inspector replied dogmatically, "great thieves always look like honest people. You understand that those with rascals' faces have only one course to take, which is to stay upright, otherwise they'd get themselves arrested. It's the honest-looking faces that one must scrutinize above all. Difficult work, I grant, and no longer a trade but an art."
One sees that the said Fix was not without a certain dose of self-regard.
Meanwhile the quay was gradually coming to life. Sailors of various nationalities, merchants, brokers, porters, fellahs, were thronging it. The arrival of the steamer was evidently near.
The weather was fairly fine, but the air cold, with that east wind. A few minarets stood out above the town under the pale rays of the sun. Toward the south, a jetty two thousand meters long stretched like an arm across the roadstead of Suez. On the surface of the Red Sea rolled several fishing or coasting boats, some of which have kept in their lines the elegant build of the antique galley.
Moving about amid this crowd, Fix, by a habit of his profession, sized up the passersby with a quick glance.
It was then half past ten.
"But she'll never arrive, this steamer!" he cried, hearing the harbor clock strike.
"She can't be far off," replied the consul.
"How long will she stop at Suez?" asked Fix.
"Four hours. Time to take on her coal. From Suez to Aden, at the far end of the Red Sea, it's thirteen hundred and ten miles, and she must lay in a supply of fuel."
"And from Suez, does this boat go straight to Bombay?" asked Fix.
"Straight through, without breaking cargo."
"Well then," said Fix, "if the thief has taken this route and this boat, it must be part of his plan to disembark at Suez, so as to make for the Dutch or French possessions of Asia by some other route. He must know very well that he wouldn't be safe in India, which is English soil."
"Unless he's a very shrewd man," replied the consul. "As you know, an English criminal is always better hidden in London than he would be abroad."
On this reflection, which gave the agent much to think about, the consul went back to his offices, situated a short distance away. The police inspector was left alone, gripped by a nervous impatience, with that rather odd presentiment that his thief must be aboard the Mongolia—and in truth, if this rascal had left England intending to reach the New World, the route of the Indies, less watched or harder to watch than that of the Atlantic, must have won his preference.
Fix was not long left to his reflections. Sharp whistle-blasts announced the arrival of the steamer. The whole horde of porters and fellahs rushed toward the quay in a tumult somewhat alarming for the limbs and clothes of the passengers. A dozen boats put off from the shore and went out to meet the Mongolia.
Soon the gigantic hull of the Mongolia was seen passing between the banks of the canal, and eleven o'clock was striking when the steamer came to anchor in the roadstead, while her steam roared loudly through the escape pipes.
The passengers aboard were fairly numerous. Some stayed on the spardeck to gaze at the picturesque panorama of the town; but most disembarked in the boats that had come to lie alongside the Mongolia.
Fix scrupulously examined everyone who set foot ashore.
At that moment, one of them approached him, after vigorously pushing back the fellahs who were assailing him with their offers of service, and asked him very politely whether he could point out the offices of the English consular agent. And at the same time this passenger held out a passport on which he no doubt wished to have the British visa stamped.
Fix, by instinct, took the passport, and at a quick glance read its description.
An involuntary movement nearly escaped him. The sheet trembled in his hand. The description drawn up on the passport was identical to the one he had received from the director of the metropolitan police.
"This passport isn't yours?" he said to the passenger.
"No," the man replied, "it's my master's passport."
"And your master?"
"He has stayed aboard."
"But," the agent went on, "he must present himself in person at the consular offices to establish his identity."
"What! Is that necessary?"
"Indispensable."
"And where are these offices?"
"There, at the corner of the square," replied the inspector, pointing to a house two hundred paces off.
"Then I'll go and fetch my master, though it won't much please him to be disturbed!"
Whereupon the passenger bowed to Fix and went back aboard the steamer.