“Pirate!”
cried
Captain
Speedy.
The crew
worked
lustily
“I arrest
you in the
Queen’s
name!”
|
n
hour after, the Henrietta passed the lighthouse which marks the entrance
of the Hudson, turned the point of Sandy Hook, and put to sea. During the
day she skirted Long Island, passed Fire Island, and directed her course
rapidly eastward.
At noon
the next day, a man mounted the bridge to ascertain the vessel's position.
It might be thought that this was Captain Speedy. Not the least in the
world. It was Phileas Fogg, Esquire. As for Captain Speedy, he was shut
up in his cabin under lock and key, and was uttering loud cries, which
signified an anger at once pardonable and excessive.
What had
happened was very simple. Phileas Fogg wished to go to Liverpool, but the
captain would not carry him there. Then Phileas Fogg had taken passage
for Bordeaux, and, during the thirty hours he had been on board, had so
shrewdly managed with his banknotes that the sailors and stokers, who were
only an occasional crew, and were not on the best terms with the captain,
went over to him in a body. This was why Phileas Fogg was in command instead
of Captain Speedy; why the captain was a prisoner in his cabin; and why,
in short, the Henrietta was directing her course towards Liverpool. It
was very clear, to see Mr. Fogg manage the craft, that he had been a sailor.
How the
adventure ended will be seen anon. Aouda was anxious, though she said nothing.
As for Passepartout, he thought Mr. Fogg's manoeuvre simply glorious. The
captain had said "between eleven and twelve knots," and the Henrietta confirmed
his prediction.
If, then—for
there were "ifs" still—the sea did not become too boisterous, if the wind
did not veer round to the east, if no accident happened to the boat or
its machinery, the Henrietta might cross the three thousand miles from
New York to Liverpool in the nine days, between the 12th and the 21st of
December. It is true that, once arrived, the affair on board the Henrietta,
added to that of the Bank of England, might create more difficulties for
Mr. Fogg than he imagined or could desire.
During
the first days, they went along smoothly enough. The sea was not very unpropitious,
the wind seemed stationary in the north-east, the sails were hoisted, and
the Henrietta ploughed across the waves like a real trans-Atlantic steamer.
Passepartout
was delighted. His master's last exploit, the consequences of which he
ignored, enchanted him. Never had the crew seen so jolly and dexterous
a fellow. He formed warm friendships with the sailors, and amazed them
with his acrobatic feats. He thought they managed the vessel like gentlemen,
and that the stokers fired up like heroes. His loquacious good-humour infected
everyone. He had forgotten the past, its vexations and delays. He only
thought of the end, so nearly accomplished; and sometimes he boiled over
with impatience, as if heated by the furnaces of the Henrietta. Often,
also, the worthy fellow revolved around Fix, looking at him with a keen,
distrustful eye; but he did not speak to him, for their old intimacy no
longer existed.
Fix, it
must be confessed, understood nothing of what was going on. The conquest
of the Henrietta, the bribery of the crew, Fogg managing the boat like
a skilled seaman, amazed and confused him. He did not know what to think.
For, after all, a man who began by stealing fifty-five thousand pounds
might end by stealing a vessel; and Fix was not unnaturally inclined to
conclude that the Henrietta under Fogg's command, was not going to Liverpool
at all, but to some part of the world where the robber, turned into a pirate,
would quietly put himself in safety. The conjecture was at least a plausible
one, and the detective began to seriously regret that he had embarked on
the affair.
As for
Captain Speedy, he continued to howl and growl in his cabin; and Passepartout,
whose duty it was to carry him his meals, courageous as he was, took the
greatest precautions. Mr. Fogg did not seem even to know that there was
a captain on board.
On the
13th they passed the edge of the Banks of Newfoundland, a dangerous locality;
during the winter, especially, there are frequent fogs and heavy gales
of wind. Ever since the evening before the barometer, suddenly falling,
had indicated an approaching change in the atmosphere; and during the night
the temperature varied, the cold became sharper, and the wind veered to
the south-east.
This was
a misfortune. Mr. Fogg, in order not to deviate from his course, furled
his sails and increased the force of the steam; but the vessel's speed
slackened, owing to the state of the sea, the long waves of which broke
against the stern. She pitched violently, and this retarded her progress.
The breeze little by little swelled into a tempest, and it was to be feared
that the Henrietta might not be able to maintain herself upright on the
waves.
Passepartout's
visage darkened with the skies, and for two days the poor fellow experienced
constant fright. But Phileas Fogg was a bold mariner, and knew how to maintain
headway against the sea; and he kept on his course, without even decreasing
his steam. The Henrietta, when she could not rise upon the waves, crossed
them, swamping her deck, but passing safely. Sometinies the screw rose
out of the water, beating its protruding end, when a mountain of water
raised the stern above the waves; but the craft always kept straight ahead.
The wind,
however, did not grow as boisterous as might have been feared; it was not
one of those tempests which burst, and rush on with a speed of ninety miles
an hour. It continued fresh, but, unhappily, it remained obstinately in
the south-east, rendering the sails useless.
The 16th
of December was the seventy-fifth day since Phileas Fogg's departure from
London, and the Henrietta had not yet been seriously delayed. Half of the
voyage was almost accomplished, and the worst localities had been passed.
In summer, success would have been well-nigh certain. In winter, they were
at the mercy of the bad season. Passepartout said nothing; but he cherished
hope in secret, and comforted himself with the reflection that, if the
wind failed them, they might still count on the steam.
On this
day the engineer came on deck, went up to Mr. Fogg, and began to speak
earnestly with him. Without knowing why it was a presentiment, perhaps
Passepartout became vaguely uneasy. He would have given one of his ears
to hear with the other what the engineer was saying. He finally managed
to catch a few words, and was sure he heard his master say, "You are certain
of what you tell me?"
"Certain,
sir," replied the engineer. "You must remember that, since we started,
we have kept up hot fires in all our furnaces, and, though we had coal
enough to go on short steam from New York to Bordeaux, we haven't enough
to go with all steam from New York to Liverpool." "I will consider," replied
Mr. Fogg.
Passepartout
understood it all; he was seized with mortal anxiety. The coal was giving
out! "Ah, if my master can get over that," muttered he, "he'll be a famous
man!" He could not help imparting to Fix what he had overheard.
"Then
you believe that we really are going to Liverpool?"
"Of course."
"Ass!"
replied the detective, shrugging his shoulders and turning on his heel.
Passepartout
was on the point of vigorously resenting the epithet, the reason of which
he could not for the life of him comprehend; but he reflected that the
unfortunate Fix was probably very much disappointed and humiliated in his
self-esteem, after having so awkwardly followed a false scent around the
world, and refrained.
And now
what course would Phileas Fogg adopt? It was difficult to imagine. Nevertheless
he seemed to have decided upon one, for that evening he sent for the engineer,
and said to him, "Feed all the fires until the coal is exhausted."
A few
moments after, the funnel of the Henrietta vomited forth torrents of smoke.
The vessel continued to proceed with all steam on; but on the 18th, the
engineer, as he had predicted, announced that the coal would give out in
the course of the day.
"Do not
let the fires go down," replied Mr. Fogg. "Keep them up to the last. Let
the valves be filled."
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 be 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—"
"Pickaroon!"
"—sir,"
continued Mr. Fogg, "to ask you to sell me your vessel."
"No! By
all the 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?"
"Agreed."
And Andrew
Speedy, seizing the banknotes, counted them and consigned them to his pocket.
During
this colloquy, Passepartout was as white as a sheet, and Fix 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.
When Andrew
Speedy had pocketed the money, Mr. Fogg said to him, "Don't let this astonish
you, sir. You must know that I shall lose twenty thousand pounds, unless
I arrive in London by a quarter before nine on the evening of the 21st
of December. I missed the steamer at New York, and as you refused to take
me to Liverpool—"
"And I
did well!" cried Andrew Speedy; "for I have gained at least forty thousand
dollars by it!" He added, more sedately, "Do you know one thing, Captain—"
"Fogg."
"Captain
Fogg, you've got something of the Yankee about you."
And, having
paid his passenger what he considered a high compliment, he was going away,
when Mr. Fogg said, "The vessel now belongs to me?"
"Certainly,
from the keel to the truck of the masts—all the wood, that is."
"Very
well. Have the interior seats, bunks, and frames pulled down, and burn
them."
It was
necessary to have dry wood to keep the steam up to the adequate pressure,
and on that day the poop, cabins, bunks, and the spare deck were sacrificed.
On the next day, the 19th of December, the masts, rafts, and spars were
burned; the crew worked lustily, keeping up the fires. Passepartout hewed,
cut, and sawed away with all his might. There was a perfect rage for demolition.
The railings,
fittings, the greater part of the deck, and top sides disappeared on the
20th, and the Henrietta was now only a flat hulk. But on this day they
sighted the Irish coast and Fastnet Light. By ten in the evening they were
passing Queenstown. Phileas Fogg had only twenty-four hours more in which
to get to London; that length of time was necessary to reach Liverpool,
with all steam on. And the steam was about to give out altogether!
"Sir,"
said Captain Speedy, who was now deeply interested in Mr. Fogg's project,
"I really commiserate you. Everything is against you. We are only opposite
Queenstown."
"Ah,"
said Mr. Fogg, "is that place where we see the lights Queenstown?"
"Yes."
"Can we
enter the harbour?"
"Not under
three hours. Only at high tide."
"Stay,"
replied Mr. Fogg calmly, without betraying in his features that by a supreme
inspiration he was about to attempt once more to conquer ill-fortune.
Queenstown
is the Irish port at which the trans-Atlantic steamers stop to put off
the mails. These mails are carried to Dublin by express trains always held
in readiness to start; from Dublin they are sent on to Liverpool by the
most rapid boats, and thus gain twelve hours on the Atlantic steamers.
Phileas
Fogg counted on gaining twelve hours in the same way. Instead of arriving
at Liverpool the next evening by the Henrietta, he would be there by noon,
and would therefore have time to reach London before a quarter before nine
in the evening.
The Henrietta
entered Queenstown Harbour at one o'clock in the morning, it then being
high tide; and Phileas Fogg, after being grasped heartily by the hand by
Captain Speedy, left that gentleman on the levelled hulk of his craft,
which was still worth half what he had sold it for.
The party
went on shore at once. Fix was greatly tempted to arrest Mr. Fogg on the
spot; but he did not. Why? What struggle was going on within him? Had he
changed his mind about "his man"? Did he understand that he had made a
grave mistake? He did not, however, abandon Mr. Fogg. They all got upon
the train, which was just ready to start, at half-past one; at dawn of
day they were in Dublin; and they lost no time in embarking on a steamer
which, disdaining to rise upon the waves, invariably cut through them.
Phileas
Fogg at last disembarked on the Liverpool quay, at twenty minutes before
twelve, 21st December. He was only six hours distant from London.
But at
this moment Fix came up, put his hand upon Mr. Fogg's shoulder, and, showing
his warrant, said, "You are really Phileas Fogg?"
"I am."
"I arrest
you in the Queen's name!" |