Such was the letter addressed to the government of the United States. As to the person who had placed it in the mail-box of the police, no one had seen him.
The sidewalk in front of our offices had probably not been once
vacant during the entire night. From sunset to sunrise, there had
always been people, busy, anxious, or curious, passing before our
door. It is true, however, that even then, the bearer of the letter
might easily have slipped by unseen and dropped the letter in the
box. The night had been so dark, you could scarcely see from one side
of the street to the other.
I have said that this letter appeared in facsimile in all the
newspapers to which the government communicated it. Perhaps one would
naturally imagine that the first comment of the public would be, "This is the work of some practical joker." It was in that way that I had accepted my letter from the Great Eyrie, five weeks before.
But this was not the general attitude toward the present letter, neither in Washington, nor in the rest of America. To the few who would have maintained that the document should not be taken seriously, an immense majority would have responded. "This letter has not the style nor the spirit of a jester. Only one man could have written it; and that is the inventor of this unapproachable machine."
To most people this conclusion seemed indisputable owing to a curious
state of mind easily explainable. For all the strange facts of which
the key had hitherto been lacking, this letter furnished an
explanation. The theory now almost universally accepted was as
follows. The inventor had hidden himself for a time, only in order to
reappear more startlingly in some new light. Instead of having
perished in an accident, he had concealed himself in some retreat
where the police were unable to discover him. 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. The initials in my letter were his own signature; and it was
he who had threatened me, if I dared to renew my attempt on the Great
Eyrie.
I rose and took from my desk the letter of June thirteenth. I
compared it with the facsimile in the newspapers. There was no doubt
about it. They were both in the same peculiar hand-writing.
My mind worked eagerly. I sought to trace the probable deductions from this striking fact, known only to myself. The man who had threatened me was the commander of this Terror -- startling name, only too well justified! I asked myself if our search could not now be prosecuted under less vague conditions. Could we not now start our men upon a trail which would lead definitely to success? In short, what relation existed between the Terror and the Great Eyrie? What connection was there between the phenomena of the Blueridge Mountains, and the no less phenomenal performances of the fantastic machine?