At the moment, they were waiting to follow me to police headquarters?
For it was there that I was bound, as usual. If they accompanied me I
might be able to offer them a hospitality for which they would scarce
thank me.

I took my hat; and while the housekeeper remained peeping from the
window, I went down stairs, opened the door, and stepped into the
street.

The two men were no longer there.

Despite all my watchfulness, that day I saw no more of them as I
passed along the streets. From that time on, indeed, neither my old
servant nor I saw them again before the house, nor did I encounter
them elsewhere. Their appearance, however, was stamped upon my
memory, I would not forget them.

Perhaps after all, admitting that I had been the object of their
espionage, they had been mistaken in my identity. Having obtained a
good look at me, they now followed me no more. So in the end, I came
to regard this matter as of no more importance than the letter with
the initials, M. o. W.

Then, on the twenty-fourth of June, there came a new event, to
further stimulate both my interest and that of the general public in
the previous mysteries of the automobile and the boat. The Washington
Evening Star published the following account, which was next morning
copied by every paper in the country.

"Lake Kirdall in Kansas, forty miles west of Topeka, is little known.