Around the World in Eighty Days. Junior Deluxe EditionVerne, Jules
General
Around the World in Eighty Days. Junior Deluxe Edition
Verne, Jules
Adventure stories; Voyages around the world -- Fiction
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 soon. Aouda was anxious,
though she said nothing. As for Passepartout, he thought Mr.
Fogg's maneuver 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 violent, 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
northeast, 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-humor
infected everyone. He had forgotten the past, its vexations and
delays. He only thought of the end, so nearly accomplished.
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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