The end came when the United States Congress, after a memorable session, voted to offer the sum of twenty million dollars.
And there was not a citizen of the States of whatever rank, who objected to the amount, so much importance was attached to the possession of this prodigious engine of locomotion.

As for me, I said emphatically to my old housekeeper: "The machine is worth even more than that." Evidently the other nations of the world did not think so, for their bids remained below the final sum.

But how useless was this mighty struggle of the great rivals! The inventor did not appear! He did not exist! He had never existed! It was all a monstrous pretense of the American newspapers.

That, at least, became the announced view of the Old World.
And so the time passed.

There was no further news of our man, there was no response from him.