What a Trip! Read Free Page B

to Suez, by rail and steamboat…… 7 days
    From Suez to Bombay, India, by steamer……… 13 days
    From Bombay to Calcutta, by rail………… 3 days
    From Calcutta to Hong Kong, by steamer……. 13 days
    From Hong Kong to Yokohama, by steamer……. 6 days
    From Yokohama to San Francisco, by steamer…. 22 days
    From San Francisco to New York, by rail……… 7 days
    From New York to London, by steamer and rail…. 9 days
    Total: 80 days
    One of the gentleman laughed. “Yes, eighty days! But that doesn’t take into account bad weather, shipwrecks, railway accidents, missed connections, and the thousand other mishaps that can happen in faraway countries!”
    â€œAll included,” said Fogg.
    Another of the men made a gargling noise. “On paper it’s one thing, Fogg. But I’d like to see you actually do it in eighty days—”
    Fogg set his cards down and looked at the man. “I have in my bank account twenty thousand pounds. I will wager that it can be done, and I will prove it by going myself.”
    The other men put down their cards. They looked as if they would just keel over and hit the floor.
    â€œYou’re not serious, Fogg,” murmured one.
    Phileas Fogg stood up from the table. “An Englishman never jokes about a wager. Gentlemen, I will bet twenty thousand pounds against anyone who wishes that I can make the tour of the world in eighty days or less. That is, in nineteen hundred twenty hours, or one hundred fifteen thousand, two hundred minutes. Do you accept?”
    The other men stood up. One by one, they stared at him, then at one another. “Fogg, it’s a deal!” they cried.
    It was then that I realized something. I pulled Frankie off a little. “You know what this means? If this happens, if Fogg goes on this trip, and that’s what the book is really about, we’ll have to go all the way around the world with him to get to the end of this book!”
    My friend looked at me. Her face went pale. “Around the world? That’s a lot farther than we’ve gone before.”
    â€œNow, gentlemen,” Fogg was saying, “a train leaves for the coast at a quarter before nine this evening—”
    Frankie looked at Mr. Fogg. “Um … I think we have to come, too.”
    Mr. Fogg made a face that looked as if he might be smiling, but it was hard to tell. “As you wish. So, gentlemen, my new friends here, my servant, and I will be on tonight’s train.”
    â€œTonight?” blustered one of the men.
    Fogg made a brief nod and pulled from his pocket a small notebook. “Today is Wednesday, October second. Therefore, we are due back in this very room of the Reform Club on Saturday, December twenty-first, at a quarter before nine P.M. If we are not, I lose the wager and you men are twenty thousand pounds richer. Agreed?”
    â€œAgreed!” the men chimed together.
    Frankie blinked. “So we’re going around the world?”
    â€œAround the world,” said Fogg.
    I gulped. “Now that’s what I call a field trip!”

Chapter 5
    â€œPassepartout isn’t going to like it,” Frankie said as we strode back every single one of the one thousand one hundred fifty-one steps to Mr. Fogg’s place. “He was all about having a peaceful life serving tea and toast and keeping the water at the right temperature.”
    Fogg seemed to understand what Frankie meant, then said, “We shall be leaving in twenty-two minutes.”
    With that, the man disappeared into his room.
    When Frankie and I burst into the little Frenchman’s room, he was in his pajamas and slippers, reading quietly in a chair. We had to break it to him about what we were doing and how it had happened.
    â€œAye-yi-yiiii!” he yelped. “Around the world! Around the world? But we are not packed—”
    Fogg stepped in at that moment, holding a