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 transatlantic 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