Around_the_World_in_80

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Well, what s that to me? replied Colonel Proctor.
Sir, said Mr. Fogg, very politely, after our meeting at
San Francisco, I determined to return to America and find
you as soon as I had completed the business which called
me to England.
Really!
Will you appoint a meeting for six months hence?
Why not ten years hence?
I say six months, returned Phileas Fogg; and I shall be
at the place of meeting promptly.
All this is an evasion, cried Stamp Proctor. Now or
never!
Very good. You are going to New York?
No.
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Around the World in 80 Days
To Chicago?
No.
To Omaha?
What difference is it to you? Do you know Plum
Creek?
No, replied Mr. Fogg.
It s the next station. The train will be there in an hour,
and will stop there ten minutes. In ten minutes several
revolver-shots could be exchanged.
Very well, said Mr. Fogg. I will stop at Plum Creek.
And I guess you ll stay there too, added the American
insolently.
Who knows? replied Mr. Fogg, returning to the car as
coolly as usual. He began to reassure Aouda, telling her
that blusterers were never to be feared, and begged Fix to
be his second at the approaching duel, a request which the
detective could not refuse. Mr. Fogg resumed the
interrupted game with perfect calmness.
At eleven o clock the locomotive s whistle announced
that they were approaching Plum Creek station. Mr. Fogg
rose, and, followed by Fix, went out upon the platform.
Passepartout accompanied him, carrying a pair of
revolvers. Aouda remained in the car, as pale as death.
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Around the World in 80 Days
The door of the next car opened, and Colonel Proctor
appeared on the platform, attended by a Yankee of his
own stamp as his second. But just as the combatants were
about to step from the train, the conductor hurried up,
and shouted, You can t get off, gentlemen!
Why not? asked the colonel.
We are twenty minutes late, and we shall not stop.
But I am going to fight a duel with this gentleman.
I am sorry, said the conductor; but we shall be off at
once. There s the bell ringing now.
The train started.
I m really very sorry, gentlemen, said the conductor.
Under any other circumstances I should have been happy
to oblige you. But, after all, as you have not had time to
fight here, why not fight as we go along?
That wouldn t be convenient, perhaps, for this
gentleman, said the colonel, in a jeering tone.
It would be perfectly so, replied Phileas Fogg.
Well, we are really in America, thought Passepartout,
and the conductor is a gentleman of the first order!
So muttering, he followed his master.
The two combatants, their seconds, and the conductor
passed through the cars to the rear of the train. The last car
was only occupied by a dozen passengers, whom the
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Around the World in 80 Days
conductor politely asked if they would not be so kind as to
leave it vacant for a few moments, as two gentlemen had
an affair of honour to settle. The passengers granted the
request with alacrity, and straightway disappeared on the
platform.
The car, which was some fifty feet long, was very
convenient for their purpose. The adversaries might march
on each other in the aisle, and fire at their ease. Never was
duel more easily arranged. Mr. Fogg and Colonel Proctor,
each provided with two six-barrelled revolvers, entered
the car. The seconds, remaining outside, shut them in.
They were to begin firing at the first whistle of the
locomotive. After an interval of two minutes, what
remained of the two gentlemen would be taken from the
car.
Nothing could be more simple. Indeed, it was all so
simple that Fix and Passepartout felt their hearts beating as
if they would crack. They were listening for the whistle
agreed upon, when suddenly savage cries resounded in the
air, accompanied by reports which certainly did not issue
from the car where the duellists were. The reports
continued in front and the whole length of the train. Cries
of terror proceeded from the interior of the cars.
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Around the World in 80 Days
Colonel Proctor and Mr. Fogg, revolvers in hand,
hastily quitted their prison, and rushed forward where the
noise was most clamorous. They then perceived that the
train was attacked by a band of Sioux.
This was not the first attempt of these daring Indians,
for more than once they had waylaid trains on the road. A
hundred of them had, according to their habit, jumped
upon the steps without stopping the train, with the ease of
a clown mounting a horse at full gallop.
The Sioux were armed with guns, from which came
the reports, to which the passengers, who were almost all
armed, responded by revolver-shots.
The Indians had first mounted the engine, and half
stunned the engineer and stoker with blows from their
muskets. A Sioux chief, wishing to stop the train, but not
knowing how to work the regulator, had opened wide
instead of closing the steam-valve, and the locomotive was
plunging forward with terrific velocity.
The Sioux had at the same time invaded the cars,
skipping like enraged monkeys over the roofs, thrusting
open the doors, and fighting hand to hand with the
passengers. Penetrating the baggage-car, they pillaged it,
throwing the trunks out of the train. The cries and shots
were constant. The travellers defended themselves bravely;
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Around the World in 80 Days
some of the cars were barricaded, and sustained a siege,
like moving forts, carried along at a speed of a hundred
miles an hour.
Aouda behaved courageously from the first. She
defended herself like a true heroine with a revolver, which
she shot through the broken windows whenever a savage
made his appearance. Twenty Sioux had fallen mortally [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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