"The Supreme Council."
"Not without intention," went on the visitant, "have you come from all quarters, to gather in the sanctuary of the Terrible Faith."
"Surely not," replied the Swede; "we come to hail the person who has founded a mystic empire in the Orient, uniting the two hemispheres in a commonalty of beliefs, and joining the hands of human brotherhood."
"Would you know him by any token?"
"Heaven has been good enough to unveil it by the intermediation of its angels," answered the visionary.
"If you hold this secret alone and have not revealed it to a soul, tell it aloud, for the time has come."
"On his breast," said the chief of the Illuminati, "he wears a diamond star, in the core of which shines the three initials of a phrase known to him alone."
"State those initials."
"L. P. D."
With a rapid stroke the stranger opened his overcoat, coat and waistcoat and showed on the fine linen front, gleaming like flame, a jeweled plate on which flared the three letters in rubies.