Part 2 (1/2)
”I should like nothing better”
”When?”
”At once Only I warn you that I shall do it at your expense”
”It's absurd!” cried Stuart, as beginning to be annoyed at the persistency of his friend ”Coain, then,” said Phileas Fogg ”There's a false deal”
Stuart took up the pack with a feverish hand; then suddenly put the,” said he, ”it shall be so: I ager the four thousand on it”
”Calm yourself, my dear Stuart,” said Fallentin ”It's only a joke”
”When I say I'll wager,” returned Stuart, ”Ito the others, he continued: ”I have a deposit of twenty thousand at Baring's which I illingly risk upon it”
”Twenty thousand pounds!” cried Sullivan ”Twenty thousand pounds, which you would lose by a single accidental delay!”
”The unforeseen does not exist,” quietly replied Phileas Fogg
”But, Mr Fogg, eighty days are only the estimate of the least possible time in which the journey can be ”
”But, in order not to exceed it, you must jump mathematically from the trains upon the steaain”
”I will julish as a wager,” replied Phileas Fogg, soleainst anyone ishes that I will hty days or less; in nineteen hundred and twenty hours, or a hundred and fifteen thousand two hundred minutes Do you accept?”
”We accept,” replied Messrs Stuart, Fallentin, Sullivan, Flanagan, and Ralph, after consulting each other
”Good,” said Mr Fogg ”The train leaves for Dover at a quarter before nine I will take it”
”This very evening?” asked Stuart
”This very evening,” returned Phileas Fogg He took out and consulted a pocket almanac, and added, ”As today is Wednesday, the 2nd of October, I shall be due in London in this very room of the Reform Club, on Saturday, the 21st of December, at a quarter before nine pm; or else the twenty thousand pounds, now deposited in ht, gentlemen Here is a cheque for the aer was at once drawn up and signed by the six parties, during which Phileas Fogg preserved a stoical composure He certainly did not bet to win, and had only staked the twenty thousand pounds, half of his fortune, because he foresaw that he ht have to expend the other half to carry out this difficult, not to say unattainable, project As for his antagonists, they seeitated; not so much by the value of their stake, as because they had so under conditions so difficult to their friend
The clock struck seven, and the party offered to suspend the gaht make his preparations for departure