Around the World in Eighty Days
Literature
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Passepartout had for an instant feared that he was on the wrong boat; but, though he was really on the Carnatic, his master was not there.
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He fell thunderstruck on a seat.
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He saw it all now.
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It was his fault, then, that Mr. Fogg and Aouda had missed the steamer.
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A locomotive, moving on the rails laid down the evening before, brought the rails to be laid on the morrow, and advanced upon them as fast as they were put in position.
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"Good!" thought he. "I will imagine I am at the Carnival!" His first care, after being thus "Japanesed," was to enter a tea-house of modest appearance, and, upon half a bird and a little rice, to breakfast like a man for whom dinner was as yet a problem to be solved.
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"Now," thought he, when he had eaten heartily, "I mustn't lose my head. I can't sell this costume again for one still more Japanese.
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I must consider how to leave this country of the Sun, of which I shall not retain the most delightful of memories, as quickly as possible."
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It occurred to him to visit the steamers which were about to leave for America.
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He would offer himself as a cook or servant, in payment of his passage and meals.
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Once at San Francisco, he would find some means of going on.
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The difficulty was, how to traverse the four thousand seven hundred miles of the Pacific which lay between Japan and the New World.
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Passepartout was not the man to let an idea go begging, and directed his steps towards the docks.
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What need would they have of a cook or servant on an American steamer, and what confidence would they put in him, dressed as he was?
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What references could he give? As he was reflecting in this wise, his eyes fell upon an immense placard which a sort of clown was carrying through the streets.
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"The United States!" said Passepartout; "that's just what I want!"
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He followed the clown, and soon found himself once more in the Japanese quarter.
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A quarter of an hour later he stopped before a large cabin, adorned with several clusters of streamers, the exterior walls of which were designed to represent, in violent colours and without perspective, a company of jugglers.
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This was the Honourable William Batulcar's establishment. That gentleman was a sort of Barnum, the director of a troupe of mountebanks, jugglers, clowns, acrobats, equilibrists, and gymnasts, who, according to the placard, was giving his last performances before leaving the Empire of the Sun for the States of the Union.
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Passepartout entered and asked for Mr. Batulcar, who straightway appeared in person. "What do you want?" said he to Passepartout, whom he at first took for a native.
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"Would you like a servant, sir?" asked Passepartout. "A servant!" cried Mr. Batulcar, caressing the thick grey beard which hung from his chin.
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"I already have two who are obedient and faithful, have never left me, and serve me for their nourishment and here they are," added he, holding out his two robust arms, furrowed with veins as large as the strings of a bass-viol.
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"So I can be of no use to you?" "None." "The devil! I should so like to cross the Pacific with you!"
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"Ah!" said the Honourable Mr. Batulcar. "You are no more a Japanese than I am a monkey! Who are you dressed up in that way?"
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"A man dresses as he can." "That's true. You are a Frenchman, aren't you?"
