Page 310 - AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS

Around the World in 80 Days

‘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,

309 of 339