“O, Mr. World, thou needst not fear to sign the pledge and enter the secret service of our great and glorious master,” were the words that greeted him in a friendly tone. “Who art thou, and how camest thou here?” asked Mr. World in suspense. “I came here from ‘going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.’” Then, without uttering another word, the strange visitor lifted the pledge from the desk and read it audibly: “Into these darker chambers let me go, I promise to conceal its scenes of woe, And solemnly declare, as here I stand, That I will aid this secret working band.” “What can there be about that pledge not suited to your wish? It means that you are to have your eyes opened to behold new things, and also to learn the secret laws of life, healthful to your marrow and your bones.” Mr. World hesitated no longer. He signed the document forthwith, and a pass-word was whispered into his ear. Suddenly a door opened at one end of the room, through which Mr. World walked into a large cavern which was illuminated only by faint glimmerings of light. He could discern faintly that many creatures were there whose uncanny noises, freighted with oaths and blasphemies, sent their sulphurous fumes around. Although Mr. World was accustomed to foul scenes and profanity, yet he was sickened at this deeper touch of Hell. “Where am I and how came I here?” he cried out excitedly. A woman came quickly in response to his outcry. “You are in a place of liberty and personal license,” she answered. “Here you are free from the annoyances of narrow-minded pilgrims from the King’s Highway, and you may spend a season in pure delight in these secret abodes which you will find more and more suited to the cravings of your natural heart and mind.” Now Mr. World was a somewhat judicious man, and although he would not sanction what he called church fanaticism, yet he had some self-respect, and had never allowed himself to reach the slum-level of society. “Here I cannot and will not stay. Are there no other apartments to which I can go?” he asked, as the woman offered him a glass of wine, and in a sensual way entreated him to remain. Mr. World was a lover of wine, but was suspicious of the place, and so he moved to go and found great difficulty in getting to another door, which, at last, he reached only by determination, and, giving a pass-word, he went into the first regular department of Satan’s Secret Service. This place, which was secretly connected with the Wizard City, was one of Satan’s centers from which originated schemes and devices to commit and practice embryonic murder. I saw in this dark cavern the sons and daughters of earth, high and low, noble and ignoble, and my heart bled within at what I further witnessed.