A day later, the Henrietta was sailing fast toward England. Surprisingly, Mr. Fogg was standing at the wheel, commanding the ship. He had locked Captain Speedy in his cabin and bribed the entire crew with thick stacks of banknotes.
Passepartout was absolutely thrilled by his master’s bold actions. Detective Fix, however, was incredibly confused. He now suspected that Fogg was a dangerous pirate, planning to steal the ship and hide somewhere with his stolen bank money.
The journey went smoothly at first, but soon the winter weather turned bad. The wind blew heavily against them, forcing Mr. Fogg to use the steam engine at maximum power to keep up their speed.
On December 16th, the engineer came to Mr. Fogg with terrible news. Because they were pushing the engine so hard to fight the waves, they were rapidly running out of fuel. They simply did not have enough coal to reach Liverpool.
"Keep the fires burning until the coal is completely gone," Fogg ordered calmly.
Two days later, the coal was completely finished. Fogg ordered Passepartout to bring Captain Speedy up to the deck. The locked-up captain rushed out like a bomb ready to explode. He was absolutely furious, his face purple with pure anger.
"Pirate! Thief!" Speedy screamed. "Where are we?"
"Seven hundred miles from Liverpool," Fogg replied quietly. "I brought you here to ask you to sell me your ship. I have to burn it."
"Burn my ship! A ship worth fifty thousand dollars!" the captain yelled.
"Here is sixty thousand," Fogg said, handing him a massive roll of cash.
The sight of the money worked like magic. The captain instantly forgot his anger. The ship was old, and this was an incredible bargain. He took the money, happily agreeing to let Fogg do whatever he wanted with the wooden parts, as long as he could keep the metal engine and hull afterward.
When Passepartout saw his master hand over such a massive amount of money, he turned as white as a sheet. Fogg was spending his fortune so quickly that there would soon be nothing left!
Fogg immediately ordered the crew to sacrifice everything made of wood to keep the engine running. For the next two days, Passepartout and the sailors chopped down the masts, the guest cabins, the furniture, and most of the deck. They fed the wood directly into the burning fires.
By the time they reached the coast of Ireland, the ship was nothing but a flat metal shell. Unfortunately, they had completely run out of wood, and they were still too far from Liverpool.
But Fogg always had a backup plan. He knew that the international mail ships stopped in Ireland to send letters on a much faster route. They could take a local train to Dublin, and then ride a high-speed ferry directly to Liverpool. Fogg said goodbye to the rich, smiling Captain Speedy, and the group hurried onto the Irish shore.
The plan worked perfectly. They traveled across Ireland and took the fast ferry across the sea. At twenty minutes before noon on December 21st, Phileas Fogg finally stepped onto the docks of Liverpool. He was officially back in England. He had plenty of time to take a six-hour train to London and win his massive bet.
But just as he took his first steps on English soil, Detective Fix walked up to him. Fix placed a heavy hand on Mr. Fogg’s shoulder and pulled out an official police warrant.
"You are really Phileas Fogg?" Fix asked.
"I am."
"Then I arrest you in the Queen's name!"