r
deafened me for a moment. The unknown voice then directed me to take ten
steps forward and stop at the word halt. I took ten steps, and halted.

"Stricken mortal," said a second husky voice, more husky, if possible,
than the first, "if you had advanced another inch, you would have
disappeared down an abyss three thousand feet deep!"

I naturally shrunk back at this friendly piece of information. A prick
from some two-pronged instrument, evidently a pitchfork, gently
checked my retreat. I was then conducted to the brink of several other
precipices, and ordered to step over many dangerous chasms, where
the result would have been instant death if I had committed the least
mistake. I have neglected to say that my movements were accompanied by
dismal groans from different parts of the grotto.

Finally, I was led up a steep plank to what appeared to me an
incalculable height. Here I stood breathless while the bylaws were read
aloud. A more extraordinary code of laws never came from the brain of
man. The penalties attached to the abject being who should reveal any
of the secrets of the society were enough to make the blood run cold. A
second pistol-shot was heard, the something I stood on sunk with a crash
beneath my feet and I fell two miles, as nearly as I could compute it.
At the same instant the handkerchief was whisked from my eyes, and I
found myself standing in an empty hogshead surrounded by twelve masked
figures fantastically dressed. One of the conspirators was really
appalling with a tin sauce-pan on his head, and a tiger-skin sleigh-robe
thrown over his shoulders. I scarcely need say that there were no
vestiges to be seen of the fearful gulfs over which I had passed so
cautiously. My ascent had been to the top of the hogshead, and my
descent to the bottom thereof. Holding one another by the hand,
and chanting a low dirge, the Mystic Twelve revolved about me. This
concluded the ceremony. With a merry shout the boys threw off their
masks, and I was declared a regularly installed member of the R. M. C.

I afterwards had a good deal of sport out of the club, for these
initiations, as you may imagine, were sometimes very comical spectacles,
especially when the aspirant for centipedal honors happened to be of a
timid disposition. If he showed the slightest terror, he was certain
to be tricked unmercifully. One of our subsequent devices--a humble
invention of my own--was to request the blindfolded candidate to put ou