Mess Lethierry:

"Shall I brush the dust off your letter, sir?"

Lethierry seemed to arouse from his lethargy.

"Ay, ay! You are right," he said; and he opened the letter, and read as
follows:--

"At Sea, _10th March_.

"To Mess Lethierry of St. Sampson.

"You will be gratified to receive news of me. I am aboard the
_Tamaulipas_, bound for the port of 'No-return.' Among the crew is a
sailor named Ahier-Tostevin, from Guernsey, who will return and will
have some facts to communicate to you. I take the opportunity of our
speaking a vessel, the _Herman Cortes_, bound for Lisbon, to forward you
this letter.

"You will be astonished to learn that I am going to be honest.

"As honest as Sieur Clubin.

"I am bound to believe that you know of certain recent occurrences;
nevertheless, it is, perhaps, not altogether superfluous to send you a
full account of them.

"To proceed then.

"I have returned you your money.

"Some years ago, I borrowed from you, under somewhat irregular
circumstances, the sum of fifty thousand francs. Before leaving St. Malo
lately, I placed in the hands of your confidential man of business,
Sieur Clubin, on your account three bank-notes of one thousand pounds
each; making together seventy-five thousand francs. You will no doubt
find this reimbursement sufficient.

"Sieur Clubin acted for you, and received your money, including
interest, in a remarkably energetic manner. He appeared to me, indeed,
singularly zealous. This is, in fact, my reason for apprising you of the
facts.

"Your other confidential man of business,

"RANTAINE.

"_Postscript_--Sieur Clubin was in possession of a revolver, which will
explain to you the circumstance of my having no receipt."

* * * * *

He who has ever touched a torpedo, or a Leyden-jar fully charged, may
have a notion of the effect produced on Mess Lethierry by the reading of
this letter.

Under that envelope, in that sheet of paper folded in four, to which he
had at first paid so little attention, lay the elements of an
extraordinary commotion.

He recognised the writing and the signature. As to the facts which the
letter contained, at first he understood nothing.

The excitement of the event, however, soon gave movement to his
faculties.

The effective part of the shock he had received lay in the phenomenon of
the seventy-five thousand francs entrusted by Rantaine to Clubin; this
was a riddle which