I could not have had better assistants.
Several days passed, without news, either of the automobile, the boat, or the submarine.

There were rumors in plenty; but the police knew them to be false.

As to the reckless stories that appeared in the newspapers, they had most of them, no foundation whatever.

Even the best journals cannot be trusted to refuse an exciting bit of news on the mere ground of its unreliability.
Then, twice in quick succession, there came what seemed trustworthy reports of the "man of the hour." The first asserted that he had been seen on the roads of Arkansas, near Little Rock.

The second, that he was in the very middle of Lake Superior.
Unfortunately, these two notices were absolutely unreconcilable; for while the first gave the afternoon of June twenty-sixth, as the time of appearance, the second set it for the evening of the same day.
Now, these two points of the United States territory are not less than eight hundred miles apart.