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. He appeared no more. For my part, not
knowing what to think, I commenced to lose all hope of reaching any
solution to the strange affair.

Then on the morning of the fifteenth of July, a letter without
postmark was found in the mailbox of the police bureau. After the
authorities had studied it, it was given out to the Washington
journals, which published it in facsimile, in special numbers. It was
couched as follows:





Chapter 9

THE SECOND LETTER