Around the World in Seventy-Two Days | Page 8

beat the
record made by a hero of fiction, and I found myself forcing a false
gaiety that helped to hide my real fears.
The passengers on the Augusta Victoria all stayed up to see us off. We
sat on deck talking or nervously walking about until half-past two in
the morning. Then some one said the tugboat had come alongside, and
we all rushed over to see it. After it was made secure we went down to
the lower deck to see who would come on and to get some news from
land.
One man was very much concerned about my making the trip to
London alone. He thought as it was so late, or rather so early, that the
London correspondent, who was to have met me, would not put in an
appearance.
"I shall most certainly leave the ship here and see you safely to London,
if no one comes to meet you," he protested, despite my assurances that
I felt perfectly able to get along safely without an escort.

More for his sake than my own, I watched the men come on board, and
tried to pick out the one that had been sent to meet me. Several of them
were passing us in a line just as a gentleman made some remark about
my trip around the world. A tall young man overheard the remark, and
turning at the foot of the stairs, looked down at me with a hesitating
smile.
"Nellie Bly ?" he asked inquiringly.
"Yes," I replied, holding out my hand, which he gave a cordial grasp,
meanwhile asking if I had enjoyed my trip, and if my baggage was
ready to be transferred.
The man who had been so fearful of my traveling to London alone,
took occasion to draw the correspondent into conversation. Afterwards
he came to me and said with the most satisfied look upon his face:
"He is all right. If he had not been so, I should have gone to London
with you anyway. I can rest satisfied now for he will take care of you."
I went away with a warm feeling in my heart for that kindly man who
would have sacrificed his own comfort to insure the safety of an
unprotected girl.
A few warm hand clasps, and interchanging of good wishes, a little dry
feeling in the throat, a little strained pulsation of the heart, a little
hurried run down the perpendicular plank to the other passengers who
were going to London, and then the tug cast off from the ship, and we
drifted away in the dark.

CHAPTER III.
SOUTHAMPTON TO JULES VERNE'S.
"M R. & MRS. JULES VERNE have sent a special letter asking that if
possible you will stop to see them," the London correspondent said to

me, as we were on our way to the wharf.
"Oh, how I should like to see them!" I exclaimed, adding in the same
breath, "Isn't it hard to be forced to decline such a treat?"
"If you are willing to go without sleep and rest for two nights, I think it
can be done," he said quietly.
"Safely? Without making me miss any connections? If so, don't think
about sleep or rest."
"It depends on our getting a train out of here to-night. All the regular
trains until morning have left, and unless they decide to run a special
mail train for the delayed mails, we will have to stay here all night and
that will not give us time to see Verne. We shall see when we land what
they will decide to do."
The boat that was landing us left much to be desired in the way of
comfort. The only cabin seemed to be the hull, but it was filled with
mail and baggage and lighted by a lamp with a smoked globe. I did not
see any place to sit down, so we all stood on deck, shivering in the
damp, chilly air, and looking in the gray fog like uneasy spirits.
The dreary, dilapidated wharf was a fit landing place for the antique
boat. I silently followed the correspondent into a large empty shed,
where a few men with sleep in their eyes and uniforms that bore ample
testimony to the fact that they had slept in their clothes, were stationed
behind some long, low tables.
"Where are your keys?" the correspondent asked me as he sat my
solitary bag down before one of these weary looking inspectors.
"It is too full to lock," I answered simply.
"Will you swear that you have no tobacco or tea?" the inspector asked
my escort lazily.
"Don't swear," I said to him; then turning to the inspector I added: "It's

my bag."
He smiled and putting a chalk mark upon the bag