Chapter 31 Chapter 32: Phileas Fogg wrestling with bad luck

The China liner sailed away, and seemed to take away the last hope of Phileas Fogg. In fact, all the steamers that go directly between Europe and America, whether they are the French Transatlantic passenger line, the White Star Line passenger line, the Iman's steamer, or the Hamburg line steamer and other passenger and cargo steamers, can not help Mr. Fogg at present. Complete his travel plans on time. For example, the French Transatlantic Company's Purel, it is said that the ships of this company are excellent, the speed is not lower than that of any other company's ships, and the comfort is better than all ships, but this ship will not be released until December 14, the day after tomorrow. The number is only opened.In addition, the Hamburg Line ships to Harvard cannot go directly to Liverpool or London.Add to this the delay from Harvard to Southampton, and Mr Fogg's last efforts would be in vain.

As for the Iman company's ship, there is no need to think about it at all.One of its Paris numbers will not leave until the next day.And the company's ships mainly transport immigrants.Its machine horsepower is very small, and half of its sailing depends on the machine and half on the sails, so it is not fast.The time it took to get from New York to England on such a ship was much longer than the time Fokker currently had left to win the host. Mr. Fogg is well aware of these situations, because he has a "Brad Hugh's Travel Book" in his hand, which contains the daily dynamics of ships traveling to and from the Atlantic Ocean.

Passepartout was in such a panic that he missed the steamer for Liverpool by forty-five minutes, and it was almost impossible for him to live.It was all his fault, his own fault, he was supposed to help the master, but he got into trouble along the way and brought all kinds of difficulties!He recalled the accidents encountered along the way, calculated the amount of money he spent alone, and then thought of the huge amount of gambling money, plus the astonishing amount of travel expenses, which would soon turn into Nothing, and Mr. Fogg would be completely bankrupt.Thinking of this, Passepartout cursed himself.

However, Mr. Fogg did not reproach him at this time, and when he left the transatlantic company wharf, he only said this sentence: "Come on, let's talk about it tomorrow." Mr. Fogg, Mrs. Aouda, Fix and Passepartout took the Jersey City ferry across the Hudson, and then took a carriage to the St. Nicholas Hotel on Broadway.They took a room in the hotel and spent the night like this.The night seemed short to Phileas Fogg, who slept soundly; but Lady Aouda and the other two traveling companions, who were so preoccupied with tossing and turning that they could not sleep soundly, seemed particularly long to them.

The next day is December 12th.From 7:00 am on the 12th to 8:45 pm on the 21st, there are only nine days, thirteen hours and forty-five minutes left.If Phileas Fogg had caught up with that first-class Gunnar ship China last night, he would have made it to Liverpool and London as scheduled! Mr. Fogg ordered Passepartout to wait at the hotel, and told Mrs. Aouda to be ready to leave at any moment, and he left the hotel alone. He reached the banks of the Hudson, and among the boats moored at the wharves or in the middle of the river, he looked carefully for the departing steamer.There were quite a few ships with signal flags ready to go, just waiting to go out to sea at high tide in the morning, because in this huge and well-equipped New York port, there are always a hundred ships going to all parts of the world every day, but most of them are It was a sailing ship, and it did not suit Phileas Fogg's present needs.

It seemed as if the gentleman's final plans were about to fail.But at this moment he noticed a merchant ship equipped with engine-wheels, at most a tenth of a nautical mile away, moored in front of the battery.The boat looked neat, and a large cloud of black smoke was rising from the chimney, indicating that it was about to go to sea. Phileas Fogg called a sampan and got into it.The oars were drawn by the boatman, and soon he reached the ladder of the Henrietta.This is an iron-hulled boat, and the structure on the deck is all wood. The captain of the Henrietta is on board.Phileas Fogg went on deck and called for the captain, who came at once.

This man is fifty years old, he is an old sailor who has experienced many storms at sea, he speaks aggressively, and he seems to be a difficult person to get along with.He has two big eyes, a face like bronze, brown-red hair, and a burly figure. He is not at all like the people people often come into contact with in society. "Is the captain there?" asked Mr. Fogg. "I am." "I am Phileas Fogg, from London, England." "My name is Anjou Spiti and I was born in Cardiff, England." "Is your ship about to sail?..." "Leave in an hour."

"Your ship coming?..." "To Bordeaux." "What's on your ship?" "The bottom of the ship is loaded with ballast stones. There is no cargo. Let the ship go back empty." "Do you have any passengers on board?" "No, I never take passengers. Passengers are a cumbersome and troublesome cargo." "Is your boat going well?" "Eleven or twelve knots an hour. Who doesn't know about the Henrietta?" "Would you like to take me to Liverpool? There are four of us." "To Liverpool?! Why didn't you say you want me to take you to China?"

"I'm only talking about Liverpool." "No!" "Not going?" "No. I'm going to Bordeaux now, and I'm going to Bordeaux." "Won't you go no matter how much it costs?" "No amount of money." The tone of the captain's speech was non-negotiable. "But, the owner of the Henrietta..." said Phileas Fogg. "It is I, the captain," replied the captain, "the ship is mine." "I'll charter your boat to Liverpool." "I don't rent." "I buy your boat."

"I don't sell." Phileas Fogg did not even frown, but the situation was very bad.New York was nothing like Hong Kong, and the owner of the Henrietta was nothing like the owner of the Don Cadel.When encountering difficulties, this gentleman's pound can always remove obstacles for him and save the day, but this time the pound doesn't work either. However, we must find a way to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Since we are not sure that we can fly across the sea even if we are willing to take the risk of taking a balloon, we must find a way to cross the sea by boat. However, it seemed that Phileas Fogg had already made up his mind.He said to the captain:

"Well then, will you take us to Bordeaux, please?" "If you don't bring anyone, even if you give me two hundred dollars, I won't take it!" "I give you two thousand dollars (ten thousand gold francs)." "Give me two thousand each?" "Everyone will give you two thousand." "There are four of you?" "four people." Captain Spiti began to scratch his head.He seemed to be scratching his scalp.Take the passengers along the way, netting $8,000.It was well worth giving up what he had just said as an aversion to all travellers.Let’s talk about two thousand dollars to transport a passenger, this is no longer a passenger, this is a very expensive cargo. "I'm leaving at nine o'clock," said Captain Spiti briefly, "will you and your traveling companion be in time?..." "Nine o'clock we must be there!" replied Mr. Fogg, equally simply. It is half past eight.Mr. Fogg, leaving the Henrietta, drove back to the Hotel St. Nicholas, and at once took Lady Aouda and Passepartout on board.Even Mr. Fogg, the inseparable spy Fix, offered him the boat for nothing.Mr. Fogg made all these arrangements in a very calm mood.He never changed his serene demeanor under any circumstances. When the Henrietta sailed, all four passengers were on board.When Passepartout knew the cost of the last leg of the voyage.He couldn't help but let out an old elder's long "Oh--" His drawn-out "Oh..." slides through all the chromatic scales, from high to low until it becomes completely mute. As for Inspector Fix, he thought to himself, there was no way the Bank of England could close the case without loss anyway.In fact, when he arrived in England, Mr. Fogg only squandered a limited amount of money, and the money in his money bag was only less than seven thousand pounds (175,000 gold francs).