`Well, your honour,' replied he; `I could not risk myself, my men, or my little boat of scarcely twenty tons on so long a voyage at this time of year. Besides, we could not reach Yokohama in time, for it is sixteen hundred and sixty miles from Hong Kong.'

`Only sixteen hundred,' said Mr Fogg.

`It's the same thing.' Fix breathed more freely.

`But,' added the pilot; `it might be arranged another way.'

Fix ceased to breathe at all.

`How?' asked Mr Fogg.

`By going to Nagasaki, at the extreme south of Japan, or even to Shanghai, which is only eight hundred miles from here. In going to Shanghai we should not be forced to sail wide of the Chinese coast, which would be a great advantage, as the currents run northward, and would aid us.

`Pilot,' said Mr Fogg, `I must take the American steamer at Yokohama, and not at Shanghai or Nagasaki.'

`Why not?' returned the pilot. `The San Francisco steamer does not start from Yokohama. It puts in at Yokohama and Nagasaki, but it starts from Shanghai.'

`You are sure of that?'

`Perfectly.'

`And when does the boat leave Shanghai?'

`On the 11th, at seven in the evening. We have, therefore, four days before us, that is ninety-six hours; and in that time, if we had good luck and a south-west wind, and the sea was calm, we could make those eight hundred miles to Shanghai.'

`And you could go--'

`In an hour; as soon as provisions could be got aboard and the sails put up.'

`It is a bargain. Are you the master of the boat?'

`Yes; John Bunsby, master of the "Tankadere".'

`Would you like some earnest-money?'

`If it would not put your honour out--'

`Here are two hundred pounds on account. Sir,' added Phileas Fogg, turning to Fix, `if you would like to take advantage--'

`Thanks, sir; I was about to ask the favour.'

`Very well. In half-an-hour we shall go on board.'

`But poor Passepartout?' urged Aouda, who was much disturbed by the servant's disappearance.

`I shall do all I can to find him,' replied Phileas Fogg.