Jules Verne Forum

<jvf@Gilead.org.il>

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 19961997199819992000200120022003200420052006200720082009

The Blog of Phileas Fogg : October 2nd 1872

From: Harry Hayfield <welshliberaldemocrat~at~yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2006 20:48:26 +0100
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

BlankYes, well I rather walked into that one didn't I? Do you remember I
told you yesterday that my days are routine to the point of boredom in the
eyes of my Reform Club colleagues. Well today was routine up until about
three hours ago. I woke up at 8.00am (as per usual) had my breakfast twenty
three minutes later and by 9.37am was ready to face the day and that of
course meant meeting my new manservant. Forster introduced him to me and I
have to say that considering the references he had, he struck me as being,
well I believe the term is Herculean. He was about thirty years old and
reminded me somewhat of those statues that you see in the British Museum.
After reading his credentials (including the reason why Lord Longferry, that
Conservative wag that represents Oxford, dismissed him) I agreed to his
employment and after setting him right about the time of day left for the
Reform Club picking up a copy of the Telegraph on the way.

Now, I feel I should mention at this time a very important news event that
happened on Sunday. I presume that you are all familiar with the Bank of
England (well, it must be famous to an extent as this thing has asked me if
I want it on a map). On Sunday evening when the Bank closed up for the day,
a routine stock take revealed that the bank had lost £55,000. Now, no doubt
to people reading this in the future £55,000 may not sound very much indeed,
so I feel I should put that figure into some context. In 1871, the Bank of
England had reseveres totalling £1,000,000 therefore £55,000 is a sizeable
amount to lose. It later emerged that the money had in fact been stolen and
when I arrived at the Reform Club, it was the main topic of conversation.

However, as a consequence of the discussion the suggestion was put forward
that the thief would be miles away by now and this was followed up by one of
my colleagues mentioning that following the completion of the trans Indian
railway the thief could well be in India within three months. This prompted
me to comment on an article in the Telegraph that suggested it would be
possible to get to India in as little as 20 days and to return back to
London within 80 days. Well, talk about a heated discussion. Before I knew
where I was I had been challenged to do the journey as reported in the
newspaper and had £20,000 wagered against me. Now, I'm a Englishman of the
highest tradition, so I wrote out a cheque for £20,000 and agreed to the
challenge. All of which seemed to come as a huge suprise to my new
manservant called Passepartout who was even more suprised when I told him to
meet me outside within 45 minutes and by 8.20pm we were both at Charing
Cross station (where after donating my winning at whist that evening at the
Reform Club to a destitute lady) was waved off on my trip by my fellow
Reform Club members.

So that's why I am now writing this on a train which has just passed the
village of Sydenham in Kent, heading off towards Calais in France with the
avowed intent of returning back to London by 8.45pm on December 21st 1872.
Mmm, you don't think Professor Smith knew that this was going to happen do
you? I mean it just seems rather odd that he should arrive yesterday and
tell me to keep a record of my movements specfically from yesterday to the
end of the year. I wonder if there's anything on this box of tricks about
him.

--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.407 / Virus Database: 268.12.11/460 - Release Date: 01/10/2006

                
___________________________________________________________
The all-new Yahoo! Mail goes wherever you go - free your email address from your Internet provider. http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html

Received on Tue 03 Oct 2006 - 07:38:27 IST

JV.Gilead.org.il
Copyright © Zvi Har’El
$Date: 2009/02/01 22:36:11 $$