leaves and profuse blossoms presenting a picture of unsurpassed beauty and splendour; there, equally beautiful, though in marked contrast, a tall and slender silver birch.  The floor of the amphitheatre is, for the most part, grass—­soft, thick, velvety and miraculously green.  The silence is such as makes it wholly inconceivable, that so vast a city as San Francisco can be little over six miles distant.  Though one may strain one’s ears to the utmost, nothing is to be heard but the occasional tinkling of a cow-bell, the lowing of cattle and the desultory note of birds.  It is the perfect quiet which Nature alone can give; and it so impressed Hamar that he at once decided that this was the very spot essential for the ceremony of initiation into the Black Art.

The locality selected, the night had next to be chosen—­and the conditions demanding that on the night of the initiation there must be a new moon, cusp of seventh house, and conjoined with Saturn, in opposition to Jupiter,[16] Hamar and his confederates had to wait exactly three weeks, from the date of the conclusion of the tests, before they could proceed.

Shortly before midnight, on the spot already described, Hamar, Curtis and Kelson met; and, after searching thoroughly amongst the trees and bushes in the vicinity of the amphitheatre to make sure no one was in hiding, they commenced operations.

On a perfectly level piece of ground a circle of seven feet radius was clearly defined.  This circle was cut into seven sectors; and an inner circle from the same centre and with a radius of six feet was next drawn.  In each part of the sectors, between the circumferences of the first and second circle, were inscribed, in chalk, the names of the seven principal vices (according to Atlantean ideas), and the seven most malignant diseases.  Within the second circle, and using the same centre, was drawn a third circle, of five feet in radius, and in each part of the sectors, between the circumferences of the second and third circles, were written the names of the seven types of spirits most antagonistic to man’s moral progress.[17]

Hamar had brought with him a sack—­the same he had used to transport Satan’s corpse—­and from out of it he produced a half-starved tabby, that obviously could harm no one, owing to the fact that its head was tied up in a muslin bag and its four legs strapped together.

“It’s a good thing there is no member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals anywhere near,” Kelson exclaimed, eyeing Hamar resentfully.  “Wouldn’t a mouse or a rat have done as well?”

“No!” Hamar ejaculated, depositing the brute with a plump on the ground; “the conditions are that the animal sacrificed must be a cat.  I got the poorest specimen I could find, for I dislike butchering just as much as you do.”

“How are you going to do it?” Kelson asked.

Hamar pointed to a chopper.  “The conditions say with steel,” he said; “only with steel, and I should bungle with a knife.  You must look the other way.  Now help me with the fire.”