Mr. Ward frankly admitted that the whole matter seemed to him most
extraordinary; and I shared his view. Assuredly if this infernal
chauffeur did not return, his apparition would have to be placed
among those superhuman mysteries which it is not given to man to
understand.

We had fully discussed this affair, the chief and I; and I thought
that our interview was at an end, when, after pacing the room for a
few moments, he said abruptly, "Yes, what happened there at Milwaukee
was very strange. But here is something no less so!"

With this he handed me a report which he had received from Boston, on
a subject of which the evening papers had just begun to apprise their
readers. While I read it, Mr. Ward was summoned from the room. I
seated myself by the window and studied with extreme attention the
matter of the report.

For some days the waters along the coast of Maine, Connecticut, and
Massachusetts had been the scene of an appearance which no one could
exactly describe. A moving body would appear amid the waters, some
two or three miles off shore, and go through rapid evolutions. It
would flash for a while back and forth among the waves and then dart
out of sight.

The body moved with such lightning speed that the best telescopes
could hardly follow it. Its length did not seem to exceed thirty
feet. Its cigar-shaped form and greenish color, made it difficult to
distinguish against the background of the ocean. It had been most
frequently observed along the coast between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia.