CHAPTER XVII.
SHOWING WHAT HAPPENED ON THE VOYAGE FROM SINGAPORE TO HONG KONG The detective and Passepartout met often on deck after this interview, though Fix was reserved, and did not attempt to induce his companion to divulge any more facts concerning Mr.Fogg.

He caught a glimpse of that mysterious gentleman once or twice; but Mr.Fogg usually confined himself to the cabin, where he kept Aouda company, or, according to his inveterate habit, took a hand at whist.
Passepartout began very seriously to conjecture what strange chance kept Fix still on the route that his master was pursuing.

It was really worth considering why this certainly very amiable and complacent person, whom he had first met at Suez, had then encountered on board the Mongolia, who disembarked at Bombay, which he announced as his destination, and now turned up so unexpectedly on the Rangoon, was following Mr.Fogg's tracks step by step.

What was Fix's object?
Passepartout was ready to wager his Indian shoes--which he religiously preserved--that Fix would also leave Hong Kong at the same time with them, and probably on the same steamer.
Passepartout might have cudgelled his brain for a century without hitting upon the real object which the detective had in view.

He never could have imagined that Phileas Fogg was being tracked as a robber around the globe.