Page 77 - AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS

Around the World in 80 Days

of the Indians should be respected, and if your servant
were caught—‘
‘Very well, Sir Francis,’ replied Mr. Fogg; ‘if he had
been caught he would have been condemned and

punished, and then would have quietly returned to
Europe. I don’t see how this affair could have delayed his
master.’
The conversation fell again. During the night the train
left the mountains behind, and passed Nassik, and the next
day proceeded over the flat, well-cultivated country of the
Khandeish, with its straggling villages, above which rose
the minarets of the pagodas. This fertile territory is
watered by numerous small rivers and limpid streams,
mostly tributaries of the Godavery.
Passepartout, on waking and looking out, could not
realise that he was actually crossing India in a railway train.
The locomotive, guided by an English engineer and fed
with English coal, threw out its smoke upon cotton,
coffee, nutmeg, clove, and pepper plantations, while the
steam curled in spirals around groups of palm-trees, in the
midst of which were seen picturesque bungalows, viharis
(sort of abandoned monasteries), and marvellous temples
enriched by the exhaustless ornamentation of Indian
architecture. Then they came upon vast tracts extending

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