“We demand the prisoners!” a man shouted near me.

Then I could hear them scuffling with the guards, who, I doubt not, were doing their best to hold them back.  In a moment I knew the mob had possession of us and the soldiers were being hustled away.  D’ri sat shoulder to shoulder with me.  I could feel his muscles tighten; I could hear the cracking of his joints and the grinding of the shackle-chain.  “Judas Pr-r-i-e-st!” he grunted, straining at the iron.  Two men leaped into the carriage.  There was a crack of the whip, and the horses went off bounding.  We could hear horsemen all about us and wagons following.  I had a stout heart in me those days, but in all my life I had never taken a ride so little to my liking.  We went over rough roads, up hill and down, for an hour or more.

I could see in prospect no better destination than our graves, 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