Chapter 128 - Around the World in 80 Days

Towards noon Phileas Fogg, having ascertained their position, called Passepartout and ordered him to go for Captain Speedy. It was as if the honest fellow had been commanded to unchain a tiger. He went to the poop, saying to himself, "'He will be like a madman!' In a few moments, with cries and oaths, a bomb appeared on the poop-deck. The bomb was Captain Speedy. It was clear that he was on the point of bursting. "'Where are we?' were the first words his anger permitted him to utter. Had the poor man been an apoplectic, he could never have recovered from his paroxysm of wrath. "'Where are we?' he repeated with purple face. "'Seven hundred and seven miles from Liverpool,' replied Mr. Fogg with imperturbable calmness. "'Pirate!' cried Captain Speedy. "'I have sent for you, sir. Peck a rune. Sir,' continued Mr. Fogg, "'to ask you to sell me your vessel. No, by all devils, no. But I shall be obliged to burn her. Burn the Henrietta! Yes, at least the upper part of her. The coal has given out. "'Burn my vessel!' cried Captain Speedy, who could scarcely pronounce the words. "'A vessel worth fifty thousand dollars?' "'Here are sixty thousand,' replied Phileas Fogg, handing the Captain a roll of bank-bills. This had a prodigious effect on Andrew Speedy. An American can scarcely remain unmoved at the sight of sixty thousand dollars. The Captain forgot in an instant his anger, his imprisonment, and all his grudges against his passenger. The Henrietta was twenty years old. It was a great bargain. The bomb would not go off after all. Mr. Fogg had taken away the match. "'And I shall still have the iron hull,' said the Captain in a softer tone. "'The iron hull and the engine. Is it agreed?' And Andrew Speedy, seizing the bank-notes, counted them and consigned them to his pocket. During this colloquy Passepartout was as white as a sheet, and Fick seemed on the point of having an apoplectic fit. Nearly twenty thousand pounds had been expended, and Fogg left the hull and engine to the Captain. That is, near the whole value of the craft. It was true, however, that fifty-five thousand pounds had been stolen from the bank."