unthinkable speed, greater than any it had yet shown, how could it
have crossed all the intervening country unseen? How could it
traverse the States of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin, from
end to end without anyone of our agents giving us warning, without
any interested person rushing to a telephone?

After these two momentary appearances, if appearances they were, the
machine again dropped out of knowledge. Mr. Ward did not think it
worth while to dispatch me and my men to either point whence it had
been reported.

Yet since this marvelous machine seemed still in existence, something
must be done. The following official notice was published in every
newspaper of the United States under July 3d. It was couched in the
most formal terms.

"During the month of April, of the present year, an automobile
traversed the roads of Pennsylvania, of Kentucky, of Ohio, of
Tennessee, of Missouri, of Illinois; and on the twenty-seventh of
May, during the race held by the American Automobile Club, it covered
the course in Wisconsin. Then it disappeared.

"During the first week of June, a boat maneuvering at great speed
appeared off the coast of New England between Cape Cod and Cape
Sable, and more particularly around Boston. Then it disappeared.

"In the second fortnight of the same month, a submarine boat was run
beneath the waters of Lake Kirdall, in Kansas. Then it disappeared.

"Everything points to the belief that the same inventor must have