the
elephant took fifteen hours to reach Allahabad, the price would amount
to six hundred pounds!

Phileas Fogg, without betraying the least irritation, then proposed to
the owner that he should sell the animal outright, and offered one
thousand pounds for him.

But the Hindoo declined; perhaps he thought he would make more by so
doing.

Sir Francis Cromarty then took Mr. Fogg aside, and requested him to
reflect ere he bid higher. Mr. Fogg replied that he was not in the
habit of acting on impulse, that a bet of twenty thousand pounds
depended upon the accomplishment of the journey, that the elephant was
absolutely necessary, and if he paid twenty times the value of the
animal, it must be had.

So Mr. Fogg returned to the Indian, who perceived it was only a
question of asking. Phileas offered in quick succession twelve
hundred, fifteen hundred, eighteen hundred, and finally two thousand
pounds. Passe-partout, usually so ruddy, was now pale with emotion. At
two thousand pounds the native yielded. "I declare by my slippers,
that's a pretty price for an elephant!" exclaimed Passe-partout.

This business over, there was nothing but to obtain a guide. That was
easily done. A young and intelligent-looking Parsee offered his
services. Mr. Fogg engaged him, and promised him a good reward, which
would naturally increase his intelligence.

The elephant was got ready without delay. The Parsee was quite skilled
in the business of a "mahout." He placed a sort of saddle on the
elephant's back, and at each end of it he fixed a small howdah.

Mr. Fogg paid the native the two thousand pounds in bank-notes, which
he took from the inexhaustible carpet-bag. Passe-partout writhed as
they were paid over. Then Mr. Fogg offered Sir Francis Cromarty a seat
on the elephant, which the general gratefully accepted. One traveller
more or less would not signify to such an animal.

Provisions were purchased. Sir Francis and Mr. Fogg each occupied a
howdah, while Passe-partout sat astride between them. The Parsee
seated himself upon the elephant's neck, and at nine o'clock they
quitted the village, the elephant taking a short cut through the thick
palm-forest.

CHAPTER XII.

Showing what happened to Phileas Fogg and his Companions as they
traversed the Forest.

The guide, hoping to shorten the journey, kept to the left of the
railroad line, which would be carried in a circuitous manner through
the Vindhia Mountains when comp