In the middle of the night after this arrest, pistol shots were heard coming from the place where the prisoner was confined, and when the soldiers ran out from their barracks, they were informed by General Velasquez that a mob had broken into the prison and killed the prisoner. A crowd had meanwhile gathered round the prison, so the soldiers arrested every one in sight; but when these people came to be examined they were found to be only citizens who had been attracted by the sound of the firing, just as the soldiers had been. The men who had broken into the jail and killed the prisoner had disappeared. The matter had by this assumed such a suspicious character that the authorities decided to arrest General Velasquez, and hold him until something could be found out. A few inquiries showed that the General and the man who had tried to kill President Diaz were both connected with Guatemala, and members of some society there. This suspicion was considerably strengthened when the General was found dead in his prison, the morning after his arrest. People then said that both men were concerned in the great plot, and that both had died rather than be forced to confess. All Mexico is very much puzzled and troubled over this mysterious occurrence. * * * * * The meteorite has been safely landed, and is now on the dock at the Brooklyn Navy-Yard, where it is to remain until Lieutenant Peary decides what he will do with it. In appearance it is a smooth, mud-colored rock, that looks like a great boulder. The meteorite is ten feet long, eight feet wide, and six feet thick. It weighs over ninety tons. It was no easy matter to get this great stone on board the _Hope_. It lay a short distance from the shore, and the sailors had to drag it to the water's edge. As soon as the _Hope_ arrived in Melville Bay, where the meteorite was found, the whole crew, armed with shovels and picks, went ashore and began digging around it. The job of digging it out of the frozen ground was enough to have discouraged these men at the outset. It was half covered with snow, and frozen solidly to the surrounding earth. The sailors had to dig through seven feet of frozen ground before they finally reached the lower surface of the meteorite, then more digging followed, and at last, after five days of this hard work, it was free and ready to be moved. By means of some strong derricks which they had brought for the purpose, the monster was finally lifted and dragged to the shore. Here another kind of derrick, made like those that are used for lifting heavy guns on board ship, was brought into service, and the mass of metal was slowly lifted and lowered into the hold. The ship had been lightened as much as possible to make room for this enormous weight, but for all that the vessel was sunk much too deep in the water for safety when she finally started on her homeward journey.