"And do you really mean to detain us by force?"
"I do, if necessary."
"Will you kindly tell us your object, and by what authority you dare to delay a United States' expedition? Do you not know that our Government will demand heavy reprisals for this action upon your part?"
"Allow me to answer your first question. When you landed among us a few days ago, you found us a despairing lot of invalids. We were simply waiting death as the only possible escape from our pains and distress. The change that you have brought about by your medical skill and knowledge is known to you all, and I need not dwell upon it. Our hearts are bursting with gratitude, and it pains me beyond measure to be thus obliged to use coercion; but my daughter's interests—her life—compel me to detain you. She declares that she cannot live if the Doctor leaves her, and I cannot and will not permit her only chance of recovery to thus fly away in the air. She is all I have on earth, and I swear that you shall stay until she consents to let you go."
"But, Count Icanovich, do you not see how impossible it is for us to remain?" asked Professor Gray.
"No; I only see how impossible it is for you to go."
"But look at the vast amount of money that our Government has intrusted us with for an express purpose. Having accepted this trust, our first and only duty is to that Government. And I tell you that whoever dares to detain us will have a heavy account to settle with a great and powerful nation."
"I perfectly appreciate all that, Professor Gray, and am ready to settle any indemnity that may be demanded of me. I tell you, one and all, that I count these things as but dross when compared with the life of my Feodora. She shall not die if any high-handed outrage that I can commit will prevent it. You have heard me."
The voyagers looked at one another in dismay. Here was a predicament that no one could have foreseen.
"How long is this delay likely to last?" asked Will.