Passepartout, not less surprised, rushed out and speedily returned, crying: `Monsieur, no more railway!'

`What do you mean?' asked Sir Francis.

`I mean to say that the train isn't going on.'

The general at once stepped out, while Phileas Fogg calmly followed him, and they proceeded together to the conductor.

`Where are we?' asked Sir Francis.

`At the hamlet of Kholby.'

`Do we stop here?'

`Certainly. The railway isn't finished.'

`What! not finished?'

`No. There's still a matter of fifty miles to be laid from here to Allahabad, where the line begins again.'

`But the papers announced the opening of the railway throughout.'

`What would you have, officer? The papers were mistaken.'

`Yet you sell tickets from Bombay to Calcutta,' retorted Sir Francis, who was growing warm.

`No doubt,' replied the conductor; `but the passengers know that they must provide means of transportation for themselves from Kholby to Allahabad.'

Sir Francis was furious. Passepartout would willingly have knocked the conductor down, and did not dare to look at his master.

`Sir Francis,' said Mr Fogg quietly, `we will, if you please, look about for some means of conveyance to Allahabad.'

`Mr Fogg, this is a delay greatly to your disadvantage.'

`No, Sir Francis; it was foreseen.'

`What! You knew that the way--'

`Not at all; but I knew that some obstacle or other would sooner or later arise on my route. Nothing, therefore, is lost. I have two days, which I have already gained, to sacrifice. A steamer leaves Calcutta for Hong Kong at noon, on the 25th. This is the 22nd, and we shall reach Calcutta in time.'

There was nothing to say to so confident a response.

It was but too true that the railway came to a termination at this point. The papers were like some watches, which have a way of getting too fast, and had been premature in their announcement of the completion of the line. The greater part of the travellers were aware of this interruption, and leaving the train, they began to engage such vehicles as the village could provide - four-wheeled palkigharis, waggons drawn by zebus, carriages that looked like perambulating pagodas, palanquins, ponies and what not.

Mr Fogg and Sir Francis Cromarty, after searching the village from end to end, came back without having found anything.