– Did he travel a lot?

– So it seems, or maybe he is gifted with some kind of clairvoyance because his words come true, especially when it comes to travel.

No one really knew who Mr. Phileas Fogg was because he himself was very discreet. He seemed mysterious and lived with only one servant in the house in Saville Row in 1872 London. He liked to read the newspaper, play whish, and whenever he heard that money was needed for a noble cause, he offered to help. Moreover, he was extremely rigorous, calm and precise in his daily activities.

– You are 4 minutes behind, but this time it doesn’t matter. From today you are engaged in my service, said to Jean Passepartout, the servant who was going to be by his side in the adventure that was to come.

The only place Fogg went regularly was the Reform Club, an exclusive place where he met other respectable gentlemen and played whist.

– What’s up with the theft of 55 thousand pounds from the Bank of England?

– The police are looking for the thief, but the world is big, so it is possible that he is already far away and escaped.

– It was big, Phileas Fogg intervened. Now… she got smaller. You can get around it in 80 days.

– Although it is possible, the 80 days do not take into account the risks that may appear on the way…

– I bet you 20 thousand pounds that I can go around the world in 80 days. I will organize myself with mathematical precision. And you know … an English gentleman does not joke … If you agree, I leave London this evening and propose to be back on the 21st of December, 1872, at a quarter to nine in the evening. Otherwise, the money stays with you.

– It’s absurd, shouted Andrew Stuart, one of the club members. But either… it’s his money.

And so Phileas Fogg set off, with Passepartout, around the world, with a single travel bag and a copy of the General Guide to Railway Routes and Steamboat Races, with all the timetables of ships and trains.

Word of his plan spread quickly and became the talk of England. The newspapers of repute and the local papers cataloged Mr. Fogg’s intention as pure madness, while the people considered him downright off the mark.

During this time, the chief of police received a telegraphic dispatch which read as follows: “From Suez, for London. I found the bank robber, Phileas Fogg. Send warrant of arrest to Bombay without delay.’ And the signature bore the name of Detective Fix. The bottom line? The gentleman had hurried off to escape arrest, under the pretense of travel, to lead the detectives on a wrong track. Detective Fix, also motivated by the promise of a reward, had compared Fogg’s photograph to the thief’s portrait, and the resemblance was striking.

During this time, Mr. Fogg wrote down in a notebook all the dates of his journey. The most important destinations of the trip were Paris, Brindisi, Suez, Bombay, Calcutta, Singapore, Hong Kong, Yokohama, San Francisco, New York and London, from 2 October to 21 December.

Great was Passepartout’s astonishment when he realized that his master had only one goal: to endorse the passport in every city without visiting anything. All this time, Detective Fix was traveling with Fogg and Passepartout in the hope that he could arrest the thief and receive his reward.

– We have two days’ advance, said Fogg, consulting his diary.
The steamer Mongolia had arrived at Bombay two days before.

But the lead was soon brought to naught when, in an Indian forest they were riding through on an elephant, they spotted a strange religious ceremony: a crowd of people chanting a kind of funeral psalm and playing tambourines, followed by a chariot in where there was a beautiful young woman who was to be sacrificed.

– Is it possible that these barbaric customs still exist in India? asked Fogg of the man who was their guide.

– In these wild territories yes. If the woman did not agree to die, she would have to endure incredible shame from the community. Unfortunately, tomorrow morning the sacrifice will take place. And the body of the dead man in the chariot is that of her husband, a prince to whom she was married against her will, with whom tradition says she must also die.

– We will save her! said Fogg. We’ve got a head start and we’re risking our lives, but I want to save her.

And so it was. The hero was Passpartout himself, who slipped through the smoke and darkness and managed to carry the woman in his arms before the priests became aware of the abduction. Aouda was charming and spoke English correctly, so after recovering from the shock, she was able to communicate with her rescuers.

– We will accompany you to Hong Kong, where you will be safe, Phileas Fogg told him.

– I don’t know how to thank you, you saved my life. Yes, Hong Kong is a good place, I have a relative there, an important merchant, and I will stay with him.

The journey continues with a lot of other adventures that they overcome to the disappointment of Detective Fix who was waiting moment by moment to receive the arrest warrant.

– Your cousin Jeejeeh is no longer in Hong Kong, Aouda. I think you must continue with us to Europe, said Mr. Fogg, more and more attracted by Aouda’s beauty.

And so it happens though, another major twist changes the travelers plan. Detective Fix confesses to Passpartout that he is after them because his master robbed a bank, but because the servant does not want to betray his master, Fix slips an opium pipe into his hand. Under the influence of the narcotic, the servant fell headlong on the table and did not have time to inform his master that the Carnatic, on which they were to embark, would drop anchor the night before as planned.

Although they lost the ship, Fogg paid another sailor well to take them further, to the China Sea. Meanwhile, Passpartout wakes up and embarks alone on the Carnatic to Japan. Realizing that he will never see his friends again, hungry and penniless, he joins an acrobatic troupe as a clown. He was supposed to be part of the team of balancers in the Long Noses number and be the base of a human pyramid. But during the performance, he spots Aouda and Mr. Fogg in the audience, who happened to arrive at the performance before the next boarding, and abandons his position, knocking down all the balancers.

The travelers’ adventure continues on sea and land, against strong typhoons, high waves, bison blocking the railway, snow they face by snowmobile, extreme situations such as running out of fuel, crossing a rickety suspension bridge and even some political fights. All this time, realizing that he could not yet arrest Mr. Fogg, Detective Fix had remained close to the travelers and changed his plan: he wanted to remove all obstacles from Fogg’s path to England, where he could arrest him.

Towards the end of the journey, a new unexpected situation arose. Mr. Fogg challenges the Stamp Protector, one of the political demonstrators encountered on the road, to a gunfight, but the train is attacked by a band of armed Sioux Indians and the whole plan changes.

– I will slip under the wagon and untie the safety chains, decided Passpartout. And so he did, but the locomotive detached itself from the rest of the train, and the servant disappeared with it.

“I will find him, dead or alive,” said Mr. Fogg, who, at the risk of delay, started for London, after Passpartout. He had sacrificed his fortune, and now risked his life, out of debt, without hesitation. And luck was on his side because he managed to save his friend from the hands of the Indians.

At a distance of 6 hours from London, the detective Fix finally arrests Phileas Fogg, but to the detective’s disappointment, he learns that the real thief had already been caught, and Fogg was released. When he finally got off the last train, all the clocks in London showed ten minutes to nine. He had lost the bet, he was 5 minutes late.

– Stop, I miscalculated by a day! said Passpartout. The error is simple. My master gained a day without realizing it because he traveled east all the time.

Considering that the money won from the bet covered the expenses of the trip almost entirely, what was really the profit of this adventure?

–  We could have gone around the world in just 78 days, said Mr. Fogg. But I wouldn’t have crossed India and I wouldn’t have saved Aouda and she wouldn’t have become my wife now… I am the happiest man.

Well, wouldn’t it be worth it to go around the world even for less than that?