"Never mind," replied Foster: "I think that by putting on full-steam we may have a chance of getting across."
"The devil!" muttered Passe-partout.
But a certain number of the passengers were attracted by the suggestion; Colonel Proctor was particularly pleased, and thought the plan quite feasible. He related various anecdotes concerning engineers, whom he had known, who crossed over rivers without any bridges at all by merely putting on full-steam, etc. The end of it was that many of the passengers agreed with the engineer.
"The chances are fifty to a hundred about our getting over," said one.
"Sixty!" said another.
"Eighty, ninety!" said a third.
Passe-partout was dumfounded, and although he was very anxious to cross the river, he thought the proposed plan a little too American.
"Besides," he thought, "there is an easier way, which does not seem to have occurred to either of them;" so he said aloud to one of the passengers:
"The engineer's plan seems to me somewhat dangerous; but—"
"Eighty chances!" replied the person addressed, turning away.