Uncle Prudent and his colleague carried away in a flying machine, and no one able to deliver them! The Niagara Falls Company, in which Uncle Prudent was the largest shareholder, thought of suspending its business and turning off its cataracts.

The Wheelton Watch Company thought of winding up its machinery, now it had lost its manager.
Nothing more was heard of the aeronef.

July passed, and there was no news.

August ran its course, and the uncertainty on the subject of Robur's prisoners was as great as ever.

Had he, like Icarus, fallen a victim to his own temerity?
The first twenty-seven days of September went by without result, but on the 28th a rumor spread through Philadelphia that Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans had during the afternoon quietly walked into the president's house.