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.