of a "door" when another man, this one wearing
blue clothing and a visored hat appeared. Yet they were clearly devoted
to me, at that moment, since they had put aside their own projects in
order to escort me without delay to the Mafia.

* * * * *

Mafia! Fortunate that I had found them to lead me to the Mafia! For it
had been clear in the historical work I had consulted that it was not
ultimately easy to gain access to the Mafia. Indeed, so secret were they
that I had detected no trace of their existence in other histories of
the period. Had I relied only on the conventional work, I might never
have known of their great underground struggle against what you term
society. It was only in the actual contemporary volume itself, the
curiosity titled _U.S.A. Confidential_ by one Lait and one Mortimer,
that I had descried that, throughout the world, this great revolutionary
organization flexed its tentacles, the plexus within a short distance of
where I now stood, battling courageously. With me to help them, what
heights might we not attain! Kwel dramatic delight!

My meditations were interrupted. "Boomers!" asserted one of my five
escorts in a loud, frightened tone. "Let's cut, man!" he continued,
leading me with them into another entrance. It appeared, as well as I
could decree, that the cause of his ejaculative outcry was the discovery
of perhaps three, perhaps four, other young men, in coats of the same
shiny material as my escorts. The difference was that they were of a
different color, being blue.

* * * * *

We hastened along a lengthy chamber which was quite dark, immediately
after which the large, heavy one opened a way to a serrated incline
leading downward. It was extremely dark, I should say. There was also an
extreme smell, quite like that of the outer air, but enormously
intensified; one would suspect that there was an incomplete combustion
of, perhaps, wood or coal, as well as a certain quantity of general
decay. At any rate, we reached the bottom of the incline, and my escort
behaved quite badly. One of them said to the other four, in these words:
"Them jumpers follow us sure. Yeah, there's much trouble. What's to
prime this guy now and split?"

Instantly they fell upon me with violence. I had fortunately become
rather alarmed at their visible emotion of fear, and already had taken
from my carry-all a Stollgratz 16, so that I quickly turned it