"Here," commenced he, "is a piece of mortal flesh, fresh from the
surface. I have been forced, by some strange power, to conduct this
mortal man through these nether levels until he has seen the workings
of our underground plans and schemes. He must never see the light of
day, lest the world above may know the true inwardness and source of
such laws as are called cursed, and rise in hosts against our surface
operations."
At this Blackana thrust me forward, and I went straightway to the
chairman who seized me by the back and held me aloft in his right hand,
while a deafening roar of strident voices was measuring my doom.
"_Ho, ye ten thousand!_" I cried aloud, at which the horrid chairman
fell backward, and I dropped unharmed to his own chair as the whole
host were rushing at me en masse.
The chairman sprang to his feet and waved a wand. "Silence and order!"
he commanded.
Thousands of brandishing weapons were brought to a stand, and quietness
reigned in a moment.
"Why say you 'ten thousand'? What power lives in those words?" asked
the chairman with a show of boldness, but in secret quaking. "Power
unlimited, even over death, hell, and the grave.
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