"So that is your idea, is it, Strock?"

"Yes, Mr. Ward."

There was but one conclusion to be drawn. If the mysterious chauffeur
had disappeared, if he had perished with his machine in Lake
Michigan, it was equally important now to win the secret of this no
less mysterious navigator. And it must be won before he in his turn
plunged into the abyss of the ocean. Was it not the interest of the
inventor to disclose his invention? Would not the American government
or any other give him any price he chose to ask?

Yet unfortunately, since the inventor of the terrestrial apparition
had persisted in preserving his incognito, was it not to be feared
that the inventor of the marine apparition would equally preserve
his? Even if the first machine still existed, it was no longer heard
from; and would not the second, in the same way, after having
disclosed its powers, disappear in its turn, without a single trace?

What gave weight to this probability was that since the arrival of
this report at Washington twenty-four hours before, the presence of
the extraordinary boat hadn't been announced from anywhere along the
shore. Neither had it been seen on any other coast. Though, of
course, the assertion that it would not reappear at all would have
been hazardous, to say the least.

I noted another interesting and possibly important point. It was a
singular coincidence which indeed Mr. Ward suggested to me, at the
same moment that I was considering it. This was that only after the
disappearance of the wonderful automobile had the no less wonderful