ves, and,
indeed, I was not far wrong. Well, by and by we came to a town
somewhere--God knows where. I have never seen it, or known the
name of it, or even that of the prison where we were first immured.
I could tell it was a town by the rumble of the wheels and each
echoing hoof-beat. The cavalcade was all about us, and now and
then we could hear the sound of voices far behind. The procession
slowed up, horsemen jammed to the left of us, the carriage halted.
I could hear footsteps on a stone pavement.

"You're late," said a low voice at the carriage door. "It's near
eleven."

"Lot o' fooling with the candidates," said one of the horsemen,
quietly. "Everything ready?"

"Everything ready," was the answer.

The carriage door swung open.

"We get out here," said one of the men who sat with us.

I alighted. On each side of me somebody put his hand to my
shoulder. I could see the glow of a lantern-light close to my
face. I knew there was a crowd of men around, but I could hear
nothing save now and then a whisper.

"Wall, Ray," said D'ri, who stood by my side, "hol' stiddy 'n'
don't be scairt."

"Do as they tell ye," a stranger whispered in my ear. "No matter
what 't is, do as they tell ye."

They led us into a long passage and up a steep flight of wooden
stairs. I have learned since then it was a building equipped by a
well-known secret society for its initiations.[1] We went on
through a narrow hall and up a winding night that seemed to me
interminable. Above it, as we stopped, the man who was leading me
rapped thrice upon a rattling wooden door. It broke the silence
with a loud echoing noise. I could hear then the sliding of a
panel and a faint whispering and the sound of many feet ascending
the stairs below. The door swung open presently, and we were led
in where I could see no sign of any light. They took me alone
across a wide bare floor, where they set me down upon some sort of
platform and left me, as I thought. Then I could hear the
whispered challenge at the door and one after another entering and
crossing the bare floor on tiptoe. Hundreds were coming in, it
seemed to me. Suddenly a deep silence fell in that dark place of
evil. The blindfold went whisking off my head as if a ghostly hand
had taken it. But all around me was the darkness of the pit. I
could see and I could hear nothing but a faint whisper, high above
me, like that of pine boughs moving softly in a light breeze. I