The last Indians were then disappearing in the south, along the banks of Republican river.
Mr. Fogg, with folded arms, stood motionless. He had a serious decision to make. Aouda, near him, looked at him without uttering a word. He understood her look. If his servant was a prisoner ought he not to risk everything to rescue him from the Indians?
"I will find him dead or alive," he said simply to Aouda.
"Ah! Mr. Fogg—Mr. Fogg!" cried the young woman, seizing her companion's hands and covering them with tears.
"Alive!" added Mr. Fogg, "if we do not lose a minute!"
With this resolution Phileas Fogg sacrificed himself entirely. He had just pronounced his ruin. A single day's delay would make him miss the steamer from New York. His bet would be irrevocably lost. But in the face of the thought, "It is my duty!" he did not hestitate.
The captain commanding Fort Kearney was there. His soldiers—about a hundred men—had put themselves on the defensive in the event of the Sioux making a direct attack upon the station.
"Sir," said Mr. Fogg to the captain, "three passengers have disappeared."
"Killed?" asked the captain.
"Killed or prisoners," replied Mr. Fogg. "That is an uncertainty which we must bring to an end. It is your intention to pursue the Sioux?"
"It is a grave matter, sir," said the captain. "These Indians may fly beyond the Arkansas! I could not abandon the fort entrusted to me."
"Sir," replied Phileas Fogg, "it is a question of the life of three men."
"Doubtless—but can I risk the life of fifty to save three?"
"I do not know whether you can, but you ought."
"Sir," replied the captain, no one here has the right to tell me what my duty is."
"Let it be so!" said Phileas Fogg coldly, "I will go alone!"
"You, sir!" cried Fix, who approached, "go alone in pursuit of the Indians!"
