Proteus of a mechanic!"

"It seems likely," said I, "that he will never be seen until he
wishes to be."

"True, Strock. And to my mind there is only one way of dealing with
him, and that is to offer him such an enormous price that he cannot
refuse to sell his invention."

Mr. Ward was right. Indeed, the government had already made the
effort to secure speech with this hero of the day, than whom surely
no human being has ever better merited the title. The press had
widely spread the news, and this extraordinary individual must
assuredly know what the government desired of him, and how completely
he could name the terms he wished.

"Surely," added Mr. Ward, "this invention can be of no personal use
to the man, that he should hide it from the rest of us. There is
every reason why he should sell it. Can this unknown be already some
dangerous criminal who, thanks to his machine, hopes to defy all
pursuit?"

My chief then went on to explain that it had been decided to employ
other means in search of the inventor. It was possible after all that
he had perished with his machine in some dangerous maneuver. If so,
the ruined vehicle might prove almost as valuable and instructive to
the mechanical world as the man himself. But since the accident to
the schooner "Markel" on Lake Kirdall, no news of him whatever had
reached the police.