when a cry was heard from the interior of the
temple, and was immediately succeeded by others from the outside.
Passe-partout and the guide ceased working. Had they been heard, and
had the alarm been given? Common prudence necessitated a retreat,
which was effected in company with Sir Francis Cromarty and Phileas
Fogg. They ensconced themselves again beneath the trees to wait until
the alarm, if it were an alarm, had subsided, and ready in that event
to resume their operations. But, alas! the guards now completely
surrounded the pagoda and prevented all approach. It would be
difficult to depict the disappointment of these four men at this
unfortunate _contretemps_. As they were prevented from approaching the
victim, how could they hope to save her? Sir Francis Cromarty clenched
his hands, Passe-partout was almost beside himself, and even the guide
had some difficulty in preserving his self-restraint. The impassible
Phileas Fogg alone preserved his equanimity.

"I suppose we may as well go away now?" whispered Sir Francis
Cromarty.

"That's all we can do," the guide assented.

"Don't be in a hurry," said Mr. Fogg. "It will suit me well enough if
we reach Allahabad at mid-day."

"But what do you expect to do if we remain here?" said Sir Francis.
"It will be daylight in a couple of hours, and--"

"We may get a chance at the last moment."

The brigadier would have liked to have been able to read the
expression of Mr. Fogg's face. What was he thinking about, this
cool-headed Englishman? Would he, at the last moment, throw himself
upon the burning pile, and snatch her from the clutches of her
executioners openly?

Such a proceeding would have been the height of folly, and no one
could for a moment imagine that Mr. Fogg was so foolhardy as that.
Nevertheless, Sir Francis consented to wait the _denouement_ of this
terrible scene. But the guide led the party to the edge of the
clearing, where, from behind a thicket, they could observe all the
proceedings. Meanwhile, Passe-partout had been hatching a project in
his busy brain, and at last the idea came forth like a flash of
lightning. His first conception of the notion he had repudiated as
ridiculously foolish, but at length he began to look upon the project
as feasible. "It is a chance," he muttered, "but perhaps the only one
with such bigoted idiots." At any rate he wriggled himself to the end
of the lowest branch of a tree, the extremity of which almost touched
the