Then to assert
positively his attitude toward all governments he had written this
letter. But instead of dropping it in the post in any one locality,
which might have resulted in its being traced to him, he had come to
Washington and deposited it himself in the very spot suggested by the
government's official notice, the bureau of police.
Well! If this remarkable personage had reckoned that this new proof
of his existence would make some noise in two worlds, he certainly
figured rightly. That day, the millions of good folk who read and
re-read their daily paper could to employ a well-known phrase,
scarcely believe their eyes.
As for myself, I studied carefully every phrase of the defiant
document. The hand-writing was black and heavy. An expert at
chirography would doubtless have distinguished in the lines traces of
a violent temperament, of a character stern and unsocial. Suddenly, a
cry escaped me a cry that fortunately my housekeeper did not hear.
Why had I not noticed sooner the resemblance of the handwriting to
that of the letter I had received from Morganton?
Moreover, a yet more significant coincidence, the initials with which
my letter had been signed, did they not stand for the words "Master
of the World?"
And whence came the second letter? "On Board the 'Terror.'" Doubtless
this name was that of the triple machine commanded by the mysterious
captain.
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