Chapter 17 Chapter 17 From Singapore to Hong Kong

From that day on Passepartout and Fix often met, but Fix was very cautious in front of his friend and did not ask a word.He and Mr. Fogg met only once or twice.He saw that Mr. Fogg always stayed freely in the large living room of the Rangoon. Sometimes he accompanied Mrs. Aouda, and sometimes he played "whistler" as usual. But this time Passepartout really thought over the strange thing for a long time. Why was Fix once again in the same boat as his master?Indeed, at least it always feels a little strange.This Mr. Fix was a very respectable man, and extremely hospitable.First I met him in Suez, he took the Mongolian ship, and later he disembarked in Bombay, he said he would stay in Bombay, but this time I ran into him again on the Yangon ship going to Hong Kong.In a word, he was watching Mr. Fogg closely, so the matter was worth considering.If it's a coincidence, it's too strange a coincidence.Who sent this Fix?Passepartout would now bet his slippers, which he valued dearly, that Fix would leave Hong Kong again at the same time with them; perhaps in the same boat.

Even if Passepartout had been thinking for a hundred years, he could not figure out what the detective was going to do with them.It never occurred to him that Phileas Fogg would be followed as a thief, going about the world in circles.But Passepartout is one of those men who can find the answer to everything, and now it dawned on him that he had found the answer that Fix had been staring at them, and, to tell the truth, it seemed to be Very affectionate and reasonable.In fact, in Passepartout's view, Fix is ​​just, and will only be, a follower sent by the colleagues of the Improvement Club and Fogg to make a bet. The route was carried out honestly.

"That's the way it is! That's right!" said the honest young man to himself, quite satisfied with his judgment. "He's a spy sent by those gentlemen to follow us! It's a disgraceful thing to do! Mr. Fogg is so honest and trustworthy to have a spy follow him! Ah! Gentlemen of the Reform Club, You don't care about this anymore!" Passepartout was very pleased with his discovery, but he resolved not to tell Mr. Fogg at all, for fear of hurting his master's pride by telling him the unjust suspicions of the Reform Club gentlemen.But he made up his mind to find an opportunity to make fun of Fix, to tease him from the sidelines, but never to tell him the truth.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, October 30, the Rangoon entered the Strait of Malacca between the Malacca Peninsula and Sumatra.Many steep and beautiful small mountain islands attract the attention of tourists, making them forget to enjoy the scenery of Sumatra. At four o'clock the next morning, the Yangon arrived in Singapore half a day earlier than the scheduled sailing time.It's going to add coal here. Phileas Fogg entered this early half-day in the "surplus time" column of his travel calendar.As Mrs. Aouda wished to use these hours to go ashore, Mr. Fogg accompanied her to disembark.

Fix was suspicious of any of Fogg's actions, so he also sneaked off the ship.Passepartout, seeing Fix at this trick, could not help amused himself behind his back, and then went ashore to do his shopping. The appearance of Singapore Island is neither vast nor majestic. It lacks the mountains as the background of the island, but it is still very delicate and lovely.It is like a garden intertwined with beautiful roads.Lady Aouda and Mr. Fogg were in a handsome carriage, drawn by two fine New Holland horses, and galloping through lush green-leaved palm and lilac bushes.The famous lilac seeds are made from the half-opened flower hearts of these lilac trees.Here clumps of pepper trees replace the thorny hedges of European countryside, and coconut palms and large ferns dot the landscape of the tropics with their dense foliage.The dark green leaves of the cardamom trees exude a rich aroma.There are also groups of sneaky monkeys in the woods.Tigers are also sometimes found in this dense forest.If you wonder why this ghastly beast has not been exterminated until now on this modest island, you will be told that they all swam from Malacca.

Mrs. Aouda and her traveling companion had driven about the country for two hours in a carriage, and Mr. Fogg, after absent-mindedly observing the surroundings, returned to the town.This is a city full of tall buildings.There are many beautiful gardens around the city.The garden has mango trees, pineapples and a variety of the world's tastiest fruit trees. At ten o'clock they were back on board again.Fix, too, took a cab and watched them go round, found nothing, and now he had to pay for the carriage himself. Passepartout was waiting for them on the deck of the Rangoon.He bought dozens of mangoes the size of ordinary apples.The outer skin of this fruit is dark brown, the inner skin is bright red, and the flesh in the middle is snow white.Delicious people will feel extremely delicious when they put it in their mouths.Passepartout happily gave these mangoes to Mrs. Aouda, and Aouda thanked him kindly.

At eleven o'clock, the Rangoon fueled up and left Singapore.After a few hours the traveler no longer sees the high mountains of Malacca, where the dense forests grow and hide the most beautiful tigers. Singapore is about 1,300 nautical miles from Hong Kong, a small British territory cut off the coast of China.Phileas Fogg hoped to reach Hong Kong in no more than six days in order to catch the passenger ship from there bound for Yokohama, the great Japanese port, on November 6. There are a lot of passengers on the Yangon.Many were on ships in Singapore, among them were Indians, Ceylons, Chinese, Malayans and Portuguese, most of whom were second-class passengers.

The weather had been pretty good, but when the half moon appeared in the east, it turned bad.There are huge waves rolling on the sea, and the sea wind is sometimes very strong. Fortunately, the wind is blowing from the southeast, which is conducive to the navigation of the Rangoon.When the wind was still relatively smooth, the captain ordered all sails to be hoisted.The Rangoon had the rig of a brig, and she sailed often with foresail and two jibs.Due to the dual power of the sea wind and the engine, the speed of sailing is greatly improved.In this way the Yangon sailed along the coasts of Annan and Cochinchina in fast and sometimes dizzying waves.

Most of the passengers on board were seasick due to the constant pitching of the ship.The main cause of this was not so much the waves as the Rangoon itself. To tell the truth, these peninsula ships that sail the China coast do have serious defects in their construction.The calculation of the ratio of the two displacements of the empty ship and the full load is very incorrect, so it cannot withstand the wind and waves at sea.The volume of the watertight water tank at the bottom of them is not large enough.In seagoing terms, it's "full drink", so in this case, as long as a few more big waves hit the boat, it can no longer sail as it is.This kind of ship has to be compared with the French cruise ships such as the Empress and the Cambodian, even if it is not compared to the engine and steam engine, it is far behind in terms of the shape of the ship.French cruise ships like the Empress, according to the engineer's calculations, would not sink even if the weight of seawater submerged in the bilge was equal to the weight of the cruise ship itself.However, the ships of the Peninsula Company, from the Calcutta, the Koryo, to the Rangoon, will sink to the bottom of the sea as long as the weight of the submerged seawater reaches one-sixth of the weight of the ship.

Therefore, you have to be extra careful in case of bad weather.Sometimes it is necessary to furl the sails and slow down.It's a waste of time.Though Mr. Fogg showed no sign of annoyance on account of this, Passepartout had long since become overwhelmed with impatience.He blamed the captain, the first mate, and the company. He scolded all the staff on board.Maybe it was because he thought of his gas stove left on in Saville Street, wasting his own money all the time, which made him look more restless. "Are you really anxious to get to Hong Kong?" Fix asked Passepartout one day.

"Very anxious," said Passepartout. "Do you think Mr. Fogg is anxious to take a boat for Yokohama?" "It can be said that it is extremely urgent." "Do you still believe in this strange round-the-world travel now?" "Of course I do, don't you, Mr Fix?" "Me? I don't believe it." "Damn!" said Passepartout, with a wink and a smile. This remark confused Fix.He himself didn't know why this sentence made him uneasy.Had the Frenchman guessed his identity?He really didn't know what to think.But his detective identity, which is a secret known only to himself, how could Passepartout know?However, from the way Passepartout spoke to him, it was obvious that he had something in his stomach. Another day, the lad was even more explicit.He was much more outspoken than Fix, and never kept his words in his stomach.He asked Fix with a smile on his face: "Hey, Mr. Fix, are you sure you won't go now that you're back in Hong Kong? It's very unfortunate for us to part with you." "Well..." said Fix, embarrassed, "I can't say! Maybe..." "Ah!" said Passepartout, "how lucky I am if you can go with us. See how you, as an agent for the Eastern Peninsula Company, stayed halfway. You said you were only going to Bombay." Yes, but now we are going to China again. The American continent is not far away, and America to Europe is just around the corner!" Fix watched Passepartout's most agreeable countenance.He also laughed along with Passepartout.At this time, Passepartout asked him happily: "Is your profession very promising?" "Big and not too big," said Fix indifferently. "Sometimes it's a good job, and sometimes it's not. But you know, I don't travel at my own expense!" "Oh, I knew that!" said Passepartout, and laughed again. After this conversation was over, Fix returned to his cabin and began to ponder.There is no doubt that he was seen through by others.At any rate, the Frenchman knew he was a spy.But, did he tell his master?What is his role in this matter?Could he be Fogg's accomplice?Has this matter been leaked, so it is considered a blow?For hours, Fix thought wretchedly, feeling by turns that it was all over, and wishing that Fogg was completely ignorant of his situation, and at last he did not know what to do. At this moment, he gathered himself together, and decided to deal with Passepartout directly.If there is no way to arrest Fogg in Hong Kong, and if Fogg is really ready to leave this last piece of British territory, then he, Fix, will open the window with Passepartout.If he was Fogg's accomplice, then Fogg would know everything, and the matter would be all over; if Passepartout had nothing to do with the robbery, he would leave Fogg for his own purposes. This is the delicate relationship between Fix and Passepartout.And Phileas Fogg was like a planet high above them, moving carelessly in the sky.He circled the earth in his own orbit, not worrying about the asteroids orbiting it. But beside it now there was a female star whom the astronomers called "the disturber," which should have caused some disturbance in the gentleman's mind.However, this is not the case.Mrs. Fogg was astonished that Mrs. Aouda's beauty should have had no effect.If the stellar disorder caused by this "disturbing" star really becomes a fact, it will be more difficult to calculate than the stellar disorder caused by Uranus (people discovered Neptune only by relying on the stellar disorder of Uranus). It is true that this incident surprised Passepartout every day.He saw in young Lady Aouda's eyes the boundless gratitude she felt for her master.And Phileas Fogg evidently had in mind only the heroic, not the affectionate, performance of his duty.As for the things that may be encountered in the current travel, and the possible impact of these things on him, he didn't take it to heart at all. Passepartout, however, remained restless.One day he leaned over the railing of the engine room and watched the great machine, which at times seemed to be in a rage, whirling away, while the thrusters idling rapidly as soon as they emerged from the water, as a result of the violent pitching of the ship, the movement of the pistons It causes the steam to explode continuously.Passepartout looked at the situation as if he were going to blow himself up. "The machine is idling!" he yelled. "The boat won't go away! Look at these British people! Ah! If it's an American boat, they'd rather blow it up than let it waste time with us like an old cow dragging a broken cart, soaking mushrooms gone."