that would favour their cause in operation, to consummate their hellish
purposes.

The constitution, by-laws, and about one thousand and three hundred
letters, including copies and original, were missing; and the destiny of
the whole band of Grand Masters depended upon their recovery, before
ever they fell into the hands of one who could explain them to the
brotherhood; and still more calamitous would be the condition of the
entire fraternity, if they were ever revealed to the public. Those more
immediately concerned were confirmed in the opinion that the colonel had
secreted them for future use. Finding they had not accomplished what
they intended, in bringing the papers to the city, they had recourse to
a certain clause in the constitution, to compel the colonel to produce
some of them, if in his possession. That clause required the holder of
an original letter to return the same, when requested by the writer,
after copying, if desirable. This law applied, however, only to letters
having the secret "qualities," or, in other words, the private
description of the bearer in full, which was written in acid, and could
be read only after subjection to chemical action. Three hundred and
seventy-nine of the letters in the package were of this kind; one
thousand were copies, whose original had been returned. The former had
been written to the colonel, and one bore date as far back as July 9th,
1819; the latter had been addressed to various individuals, and some
bore date as far back as 1798.

To secure these letters was a work of great delicacy. Though the
constitution granted the right of asking the unreturned letters, yet the
writers feared to make the requisition of the colonel, lest he might
suspect them of a conspiracy, and being thus exasperated, let loose his
engines of destruction. They finally fixed upon the following plan. They