"Because he is the devil himself, and you can't arrest the devil!"

Decidedly, thought I, the devil has many uses; and if he did not
exist we would have to invent him, to give people some way of
explaining the inexplicable. It was he who lit the flames of the
Great Eyrie. It was he who smashed the record in the Wisconsin race.
It is he who is scurrying along the shores of Connecticut and
Massachusetts. But putting to one side this evil spirit who is so
necessary, for the convenience of the ignorant, there was no doubt
that we were facing a most bewildering problem. Had both of these
machines disappeared forever? They had passed like a meteor, like a
star shooting through space; and in a hundred years the adventure
would become a legend, much to the taste of the gossips of the next
century.

For several days the newspapers of America and even those of Europe
continued to discuss these events. Editorials crowded upon
editorials. Rumors were added to rumors. Story tellers of every kind
crowded to the front. The public of two continents was interested. In
some parts of Europe there was even jealousy that America should have
been chosen as the field of such an experience. If these marvelous
inventors were American, then their country, their army and navy,
would have a great advantage over others. The United States might
acquire an incontestable superiority.

Under the date of the tenth of June, a New York paper published a
carefully studied article on this phase of the subject. Comparing the
speed of the swiftest known vessels with the smallest minimum of
speed which could possibly be assigned to the new boat, the article
demonstrated that if the United States secured this secret, Europe