"Wait; don't let us be too hasty," replied Samuel Fallentin.
"You know that Mr. Fogg is very eccentric. His punctuality
is well known; he never arrives too soon, or too late; and I
should not be surprised if he appeared before us at the last minute."

"Why," said Andrew Stuart nervously, "if I should see him,
I should not believe it was he."

"The fact is," resumed Thomas Flanagan, "Mr. Fogg's project
was absurdly foolish. Whatever his punctuality, he could not
prevent the delays which were certain to occur; and a delay
of only two or three days would be fatal to his tour."

"Observe, too," added John Sullivan, "that we have received no
intelligence from him, though there are telegraphic lines all
along is route."

"He has lost, gentleman," said Andrew Stuart, "he has a hundred times lost!
You know, besides, that the China the only steamer he could have taken
from New York to get here in time arrived yesterday. I have seen a list
of the passengers, and the name of Phileas Fogg is not among them.
Even if we admit that fortune has favoured him, he can scarcely
have reached America. I think he will be at least twenty days behind-hand,
and that Lord Albemarle will lose a cool five thousand."

"It is clear," replied Gauthier Ralph; "and we have nothing to do
but to present Mr. Fogg's cheque at Barings to-morrow."

At this moment, the hands of the club clock pointed
to twenty minutes to nine.

"Five minutes more," said Andrew Stuart.

The five gentlemen looked at each other. Their anxiety was becoming intense;
but, not wishing to betray it, they readily assented to Mr. Fallentin's
proposal of a rubber.

"I wouldn't give up my four thousand of the bet," said Andrew Stuart,
as he took his seat, "for three thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine."

The clock indicated eighteen minutes to nine.

The players took up their cards, but could not keep their eyes
off the clock. Certainly, however secure they felt,
minutes had never seemed so long to them!

"Seventeen minutes to nine," said Thomas Flanagan, as he cut the cards
which Ralph handed to him.

Then there was a moment of silence. The great saloon was perfectly quiet; but
the murmurs of the crowd outside were heard, with now and then a shrill cry.
The pendulum beat the seconds, which each player eagerly counted,
as he listened, with mathematical regularity.

"Sixteen minutes to nine!" said John Sullivan, in a voice which betrayed
his emotion.

One minute more, and the wager would be won. Andrew Stuart
and his partners suspended their game. They left their cards,
and counted the seconds.

At the fortieth second, nothing. At the fiftieth, still nothing.

At the fifty-fifth, a loud cry was heard in the street,
followed by applause, hurrahs, and some fierce growls.

The players rose from their seats.

At the fifty-seventh second the door of the saloon opened;
and the pendulum had not beat the sixtieth second when
Phileas Fogg appeared, followed by an excited crowd
who had forced their way through the club doors,
and in his calm voice, said, "Here I am, gentlemen!"




Chapter XXXVII

IN WHICH IT IS SHOWN THAT PHILEAS FOGG GAINED NOTHING BY HIS
TOUR AROUND THE WORLD, UNLESS IT WERE HAPPINESS


Yes; Phileas Fogg in person.

The reader will remember that at five minutes past eight in the evening--
about five and twenty hours after the arrival of the travellers in London--
Passepartout had been sent by his master to engage the services of
the Reverend Samuel Wilson in a certain marriage ceremony,
which was to take place the next day.

Passepartout went on his errand enchanted. He soon
reached the clergyman's house, but found him not at home.
Passepartout waited a good twenty minutes, and when he left
the reverend gentleman, it was thirty-five minutes past eight.
But in what a state he was! With his hair in disorder,
and without his hat, he ran along the street as never man
was seen to run before, overturning passers-by,
rushing over the sidewalk like a waterspout.



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