"Come, old man," said Jack, "so we've found you! What did you run away
for? Let me introduce you to the Columbus of Space, and don't you forget
that I'm one of his lieutenants."
I don't think that Church has ever fully believed our story. He thinks,
to this day, that we lost our "balloon," as he calls it, and invented the
rest. We purposely allowed the newspaper reporters to take the same view
of the case, but when we four were alone we unburdened our hearts, and
relived the marvelous life of Venus. I use the past tense, because I have
yet to tell you most disquieting news.
Edmund has disappeared.
Within three months after our return he bade us good night at an
unusually early hour and we have never seen him since, although more than
a year has now elapsed since he went out of the room at the Olympus. Jack
and I have made every effort to find a trace of him, without avail. Led
by a natural suspicion, we have ransacked the Adirondack woods, but we
could never satisfy ourselves that we had found the place where the car
was left. Henry persists in the belief that Edmund is trying in secret to
develop his invention, with the intention of "revolutionizing industry
and making himself a multibillionaire.
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