And in what haughty and menacing terms he had couched his refusal! So be it! He must be treated as an enemy of society, against whom all means became justified, that he might be deprived of his power to injure others.

The idea that he had perished was now entirely discarded.

He was alive, very much alive; and his existence constituted a perpetual public danger! Influenced by these ideas, the government issued the following proclamation: "Since the commander of the 'Terror' has refused to make public his invention, at any price whatever, since the use which he makes of his machine constitutes a public menace, against which it is impossible to guard, the said commander of the 'Terror' is hereby placed beyond the protection of the law.

Any measures taken in the effort to capture or destroy either him or his machine will be approved and rewarded." It was a declaration of war, war to the death against this "Master of the World" who thought to threaten and defy an entire nation, the American nation! Before the day was over, various rewards of large amounts were promised to anyone who revealed the hiding place of this dangerous inventor, to anyone who could identify him, and to anyone who should rid the country of him.
Such was the situation during the last fortnight of July.

All was left to the hazard of fortune.