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and that he would secure him if he had to pay twenty times his value.
Returning to the Indian, whose small, sharp eyes, glistening with avarice,
betrayed that with him it was only a question of how great a price
he could obtain. Mr. Fogg offered first twelve hundred, then fifteen hundred,
eighteen hundred, two thousand pounds. Passepartout, usually so rubicund,
was fairly white with suspense.

At two thousand pounds the Indian yielded.

"What a price, good heavens!" cried Passepartout, "for an elephant."

It only remained now to find a guide, which was comparatively easy.
A young Parsee, with an intelligent face, offered his services,
which Mr. Fogg accepted, promising so generous a reward as to materially
stimulate his zeal. The elephant was led out and equipped. The Parsee,
who was an accomplished elephant driver, covered his back with a sort
of saddle-cloth, and attached to each of his flanks some curiously
uncomfortable howdahs. Phileas Fogg paid the Indian with some banknotes
which he extracted from the famous carpet-bag, a proceeding that seemed
to deprive poor Passepartout of his vitals. Then he offered to carry
Sir Francis to Allahabad, which the brigadier gratefully accepted,
as one traveller the more would not be likely to fatigue the
gigantic beast. Provisions were purchased at Kholby, and,
while Sir Francis and Mr. Fogg took the howdahs on either side,
Passepartout got astride the saddle-cloth between them.
The Parsee perched himself on the elephant's neck, and at nine o'clock
they set out from the village, the animal marching off through the
dense forest of palms by the shortest cut.




Chapter XII

IN WHICH PHILEAS FOGG AND HIS COMPANIONS
VENTURE ACROSS THE INDIAN FORESTS, AND WHAT ENSUED


In order to shorten the journey, the guide passed to the left of the line
where the railway was still in process of being built. This line,
owing to the capricious turnings of the Vindhia Mountains,
did not pursue a straight course. The Parsee, who was quite familiar
with the roads and paths in the district, declared that they would gain
twenty miles by striking directly through the forest.

Phileas Fogg and Sir Francis Cromarty, plunged to the neck
in the peculiar howdahs provided for them, were horribly jostled
by the swift trotting of the elephant, spurred on as he was by
the skilful Parsee; but they endured the discomfort with true
British phlegm, talking little, and scarcely able to catch a glimpse
of each other. As for Passepartout, who was mounted on the beast's back,
and received the direct force of each concussion as he trod along,
he was very careful, in accordance with his master's advice,
to keep his tongue from between his teeth, as it would otherwise
have been bitten off short. The worthy fellow bounced from
the elephant's neck to his rump, and vaulted like a clown on a spring-board;
yet he laughed in the midst of his bouncing, and from time to time took
a piece of sugar out of his pocket, and inserted it in Kiouni's trunk,

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