The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-08-30


filed the entire doorway. was a livid
sheet of flame. We seemed to be look
ing into the bowels of some. mighty
furnace, even into the mouth of the
very Internal regions. Sometimes the
flames grew so white and seething
that il seemed the very walls must
melt away and tumble into il. Yet as
We approached nearer and nearer we
felt no heat
Clarke stood and looked about him
with sheer upon his lips Neither
or us attempted even to whisper.
And then. seeming TO come from the
roof over our heads, spoke a voice So
terrible In it's menace, so steely cruel
IN ITS tones that / felt my knees begin
to batter against each other.
Let them that would look upon the
face of the Vice Regent of the Evil
One enter through the eternal flame, -
it said. If they come on the business
of the great Lucifer they pass I'M
scathed. Otherwise they wither up and
die
Our guide had disappeared as if
by magic. Motioning me to follow.
Clarke pressed forward. We neared
the flame and still there came no heat.
Then Clarke stepped into it and was
lost TO sight, while I stood alone in
that awful corridor. Summoning all
my courage l, too. stepped into the
flame. Beyond a tingling of the
nerves and a singing of the skin !
felt no sensation.
L found myself with Clarke in an i'm
mense hail. the counterpart in devilish
decoration of the passage we had left.
The walls, roof and floor were of stone,
and the whole scene was so broken
with receSses, grottoes and innumera-
BILE stone images of satanic beings that
it was difficult TO judge its size. Be
hind us the flame alternately flashed
and sfiickered. If there was another en-
trance it was so cunningly concealed
as to escape our notice. Before us was
a massive altar, apparently hewn in
the solid rock, though upon closer OBJ
servation I found it. as we'll as all of the
interior decoration, 10 be of moulded
concrete.
forms but those of the devils and imps
that, as in the corridor. flashed their
many colored eyes upon us from all
sides.
Suddenly the stiffness was broken by
voice from, somewhere in the deep re-
ceSses of the cavern, a voice steely and
cruel in its icy suavity.
Welcome to the halls of the
Knights of Perfect Silence"
Clarkes eyes lit in recognition as
he searched the blaze of lights for
some clue to the whereabouts of the
speaker.
"Ah," continued the voice. "Messieurs
arrive a Ia bonnie heure. They have es-
capped the serpents and passed the big
guard but it is lie mauvais chance for
them. 1t is an easy death to die by a
snake. There are others not so easy"
we have no fear of you. Count
Armand de Loup," replied Clarke in
a steady voice.
''Ah, then, it is that Monsieur Clarke
knows me. But he cannot see me.
None can. No matters Monsieur
Clarke will see me this night when,
ton of a fair novice whom he will
know into the Order of the Palla-
dunn
Then thank God we are not too
late" 1 heard Clarke mutter.
But messieurs have arms of the
latest and most approved pattern, no
doubt | fear it will not be the part
of wisdom for them to see the cere-
mony from where they stand. Shall
we rush upon them in body, bear
them to the earth and snatch these
No. that would be the gaucherie.
There is softer way. All, that is it.
The position is perfect
1t came so quickly we had no means
of saving ourselves. With the hollow,
hooking laugh of the fiend ringing in
my ears / felt the floor give way be-
meath me and myself falling down.
down knew not where. Then the
sides of the we'll into which 1 had
dropped began to converge so that my
fall gradually was checked. The sides
were padded and | suffered no hurt.
Ny feet touched something solid. l
was standing erect, but in confines so
narrow that l could not raise my
arms from my sides. l remember my
nose itched violently and l rubbed il
against the padded wall in front of
me- | breathed without effort, but ]
could see nothing.