Green about how high up in the air life could be
sustained, and Bradley said an animal could live about forty million
miles above the earth if--"

"Not forty millions, my dear," interposed Mrs. Fogg; "only forty
miles, he said."

"Forty, was it? Thank you. Well, sir, old Green, you know, said that
was ridiculous; and he said he'd bet Bradley a couple of hundred
thousand dollars that life couldn't be sustained half that way up, and
so--"

"Wilberforce, you are wrong; he only offered to bet fifty dollars,"
said Mrs. Fogg.

"Well, anyhow, Bradley took him up quicker'n a wink, and they agreed
to send up a cat in a balloon to decide the bet. So what does Bradley
do but buy a balloon about twice as big as our barn and begin to--"

"It was only about ten feet in diameter, Mr. Adeler; Wilberforce
forgets."

"--Begin to inflate her. When she was filled, it took eighty men to
hold her; and--"

"Eighty men, Mr. Fogg!" said Mrs. F. "Why, you know Mr. Bradley held
the balloon himself."

"He did, did he? Oh, very well; what's the odds? And when everything
was ready, they brought out Bradley's tomcat and put it in the basket
and tied it in, so it couldn't jump, you know. There were about one
hundred thousand people looking on; and when they let go, you never
heard such--"

"There was not one more than two hundred people there," said Mrs.
Fogg; "I counted them myself."

"Oh, don't bother me!--I say, you never heard such a yell as the
balloon went scooting up into the sky, pretty near out of sight.
Bradley said she went up about one thousand miles, and--now, don't
interrupt me, Maria; I know what the man said--and that cat, mind you,
howling like a hundred fog-horns, so's you could a heard her from here
to Peru. Well, sir, when she was up so's she looked as small as a
pin-head something or other burst. I dunno know how it was, but pretty
soon down came that balloon, a-hurtling toward the earth at the rate
of fifty miles a minute, and old--"

"Mr. Fogg, you know that the balloon came down as gently as--"

"Oh, do hush up! Women don't know anything about such things.--And old
Bradley, he had a kind of registering thermometer fixed in the basket
along with that cat--some sort of a patent machine; cost thousands of
dollars--and he was expecting to examine it; and Green had an idea
he'd lift out a dead cat and take in the stakes. When all of a sudden,
as she came pelting down, a tornado struck her--now, Maria, what in
the t