"Good," said Mr. Fogg. "The train leaves for Dover at a quarter before nine. I will take it."

"This very evening?" asked Stuart

"This very evening," returned Phileas Fogg. He took out and consulted a pocket calendar, and added, "As today is Wednesday, the second of October, I shall be due in London, in this very room of the Reform Club, on Saturday, the twenty-first of December, at a quarter before nine p.m., or else the twenty thousand pounds, now deposited in my name at Baring's will belong to you, in fact and in right, gentlement. Here is a check for the amount."

A memorandum of the wager was at once drawn up and signed by the six parties, during which Phileas Fogg preserved a stoic composure. He certainly did not bet to win, and had only staked the twenty thousand pounds, half of his fortune, because he foresaw that he might have to spend the other half to carry out this difficult, not to say unattainable, project. As for his antagonists, they seemed much agitated; not so much by the value of their stake, as because they had some scruples about betting under conditions so difficult to their friend.

The clock struck seven, and the party offered to stop the game so that Mr. Fogg might make his preparations for departure.

"I am always ready!" was his tranquil response. "Diamonds are trumps. Be so good as to play, gentleman."

From: Around the World in Eighty Days - Jules Verne