Urban Feel

After a last consul­ta­tion, the guide announ­ced that he was rea­dy for the attempt, and advan­ced, fol­lo­wed by the others. They took a roun­da­bout way, so as to get at the pago­da on the rear. They rea­ched the walls about half-past twelve, without having met anyone; here there was no guard, nor were there either win­dows or doors.

The night was dark. The moon, on the wane, scar­ce­ly left the hori­zon, and was cove­red with hea­vy clouds; the height of the trees dee­pe­ned the darkness.
It was not enough to reach the walls; an ope­ning in them must be accom­pli­shed, and to attain this pur­pose the par­ty only had their pocket-knives. Hap­pi­ly the temple walls were built of brick and wood, which could be pene­tra­ted with lit­tle dif­fi­cul­ty; after one brick had been taken out, the rest would yield easily.

They set noi­se­less­ly to work, and the Par­see on one side and Pas­se­par­tout on the other began to loo­sen the bricks so as to make an aper­ture two feet wide. They were get­ting on rapid­ly, when sud­den­ly a cry was heard in the inter­ior of the temple, fol­lo­wed almost ins­tant­ly by other cries replying from the out­side. Pas­se­par­tout and the guide stop­ped. Had they been heard? Was the alarm being given? Com­mon pru­dence urged them to retire, and they did so, fol­lo­wed by Phi­leas Fogg and Sir Fran­cis. They again hid them­selves in the wood, and wai­ted till the dis­tur­bance, wha­te­ver it might be, cea­sed, hol­ding them­selves rea­dy to resume their attempt without delay. But, awk­ward­ly enough, the guards now appea­red at the rear of the temple, and there ins­tal­led them­selves, in rea­di­ness to prevent a surprise.