"But even then, granting that the turmoil of Lake Kirdall might be
produced by a submarine, brought to a high degree of perfection,
there remains as before the question how could it have reached Lake
Kirdall? The lake, shut in on all sides by a circle of mountains, is
no more accessible to a submarine than to a sea-monster.

"In whatever way this last puzzling question may be solved, the
nature of this strange appearance can no longer be disputed since the
twentieth of June. On that day, in the afternoon, the schooner
"Markel" while speeding with all sails set, came into violent
collision with something just below the water level. There was no
shoal nor rock near; for the lake in this part is eighty or ninety
feet deep. The schooner with both her bow and her side badly broken,
ran great danger of sinking. She managed, however, to reach the shore
before her decks were completely submerged.

"When the 'Markel' had been pumped out and hauled up on shore, an
examination showed that she had received a blow near the bow as if
from a powerful ram.

"From this it seems evident that there is actually a submarine boat
which darts about beneath the surface of Lake Kirdall with most
remarkable rapidity.

"The thing is difficult to explain. Not only is there a question as
to how did the submarine get there? But why is it there? Why does it
never come to the surface? What reason has its owner for remaining
unknown? Are other disasters to be expected from its reckless course?"

The article in the Evening Star closed with this truly striking
suggestion: "After the mysterious automobile, came the mysterious
boat. Now comes the mysterious submarine.

"Must we conclude that the three engines are due to the genius of the
same inventor, and that the three vehicles are in truth but one?"

Chapter 8

AT ANY COST

The suggestion of the Star came like a revelation. It was accepted
everywhere. Not only were these three vehicles the work of the same
inventor; they were the same machine!

It was not easy to see how the remarkable transformation could be
practically accomplished from one means of locomotion to the other.
How could an automobile become a boat, and yet more, a submarine? All
the machine seemed to lack was the power of flying through the air.
Nevertheless, everything that was known of the three different
machines, as to their size, their shape, their lack of odor or of
steam, and above all their remarkable spe