Page 39 - AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS

Around the World in 80 Days

Chapter VI

IN WHICH FIX, THE

DETECTIVE, BETRAYS A

VERY NATURAL IMPATIENCE

The circumstances under which this telegraphic
dispatch about Phileas Fogg was sent were as follows:
The steamer Mongolia, belonging to the Peninsular and
Oriental Company, built of iron, of two thousand eight
hundred tons burden, and five hundred horse-power, was
due at eleven o’clock a.m. on Wednesday, the 9th of
October, at Suez. The Mongolia plied regularly between
Brindisi and Bombay via the Suez Canal, and was one of
the fastest steamers belonging to the company, always
making more than ten knots an hour between Brindisi and
Suez, and nine and a half between Suez and Bombay.
Two men were promenading up and down the
wharves, among the crowd of natives and strangers who
were sojourning at this once straggling village— now,
thanks to the enterprise of M. Lesseps, a fast-growing
town. One was the British consul at Suez, who, despite

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