Without difficulty I succeeded in placing my hands upon the indentation, and after minute investigation satisfied myself I had not been mistaken. Though somewhat roughly executed, the symbols were exactly the same as those upon the fatal seal. While carefully following the lines with my finger tips, I felt, suddenly, what appeared to be some letters, two above the circle and two below, about an inch from the outer ring. At first it did not cross my mind that they could have any connection with it, for I concluded they were but the initials of two prisoners who had occupied the cell. However, when I had completed my investigation of the inexplicable emblem which had so long occupied my thoughts, I commenced trying to decipher the letters above. At first I could make nothing out of them, but by passing my hand carelessly along I ascertained that they were in the Russian character. Evidently they were initials. Fortunately, while at college I had gained a knowledge of the Russian alphabet, and though it was rather imperfect, I was prompted to make an attempt to discover the equivalent of the two letters in English. The task occupied me a very long time, and after considerable patience and perseverance I found I had translated the initials, although they told me nothing. The two letters cut in the stone above were "N.S." I stood motionless for a few minutes, almost unable to give credence to the solution of the puzzle; then went carefully over the two signs again. No; I was not mistaken. "N.S.," I repeated to myself aloud, almost breathless with amazement, my heart beating quickly, and sounding distinctly in the tomb-like silence of my dungeon. "The initials of some unfortunate man who perhaps, like myself, was confined here for some crime he did not commit." Whose was the hand that traced the deadly sign, and the initials? This was the question I vainly asked myself. "Perhaps the letters below will throw some light upon this ghastly secret," I said aloud, as I commenced to feel the two characters underneath the design. They were well-shaped and deeply cut, so I had not so much difficulty as with those above. "I may be about to solve the enigma of the seal," I reflected, as, in intense excitement, I took one letter after the other and thought of its corresponding letter in English. I soon deciphered them, and found the initials were "S.O." The discovery caused me much disappointment, for beyond the assumption that a certain person whose initials were N.S. had been imprisoned in the cell, together, perhaps, with a comrade whose initials were S.O., who had possibly sketched the obscure hieroglyphics, I was no nearer the solution of the device than before. It might have been inscribed a dozen, perhaps a hundred, years ago-- before the seal had become synonymous of death--for aught I knew.