"But for what purpose?" I demanded. "Don't you see we are arguing in a circle and that we have arrived again at the point why the Order exists?" "I do. But that can't be helped. Will you join?" "I don't know," I said lamely after a moment's reflection. "Answer me one question before I decide, and answer it to me with the most solemn truth: Do all the candidates join you in as deep ignorance as I?" "All," cried Jose and the Prior in one breath. "That is the essence of our union--this appalling ignorance of what we commit ourselves to." "Then I'll risk it," I cried. "Propose me at once for initiation." "And you will stand the tests?" demanded the Prior, now drawing back and giving me a most searching look. "Remember, this is no child's play--we are men with men's purposes." "I will undergo any test," I returned recklessly, for all at once I had seen that if I were to continue on the track of those three manuscripts I must stand by St Bruno's whether I wanted to or not. Hence, now I had got the chance of joining the society, I was resolved to let no foolish scruples stand in the way but to go into the thing heart and soul till the whole mystery of its existence stood clearly out. The Prior and Casteno now drew together and conferred for a few minutes in whispers. Afterwards the Spaniard approached me as the MP hurried off, and said: "If you will go into an ante-room at the end of the passage the Order will be called together here and their pleasure about you instantly ascertained. If they decide to admit you your initiation will be proceeded with at once." And thereon he conducted me to a small, barely-furnished waiting-room and, closing the door upon me, left me to my own reflections, which, now the critical moment had come, were, I regret to state, none of the most pleasant. Nor was that feeling of apprehension removed when, about twenty minutes later, Casteno reappeared and told me that the Order had approved me and that I was about to become a St Bruno-ite. All at once I realised that this initiation upon which I had decided to venture with so much foolhardy pluck might be a most serious business for me and for my future. CHAPTER NINETEEN. REVEALS THE SECRET OF THE ORDER. There are, of course, many strange and weird methods used for the initiation of novices into secret societies. As the years have rolled on it has fallen to my lot to belong to a large number of these quaint organisations; and I have been always impressed by one fact about them-- whether they were rowdy and very humanly convivial, or whether they were wholly serious and oppressed by a lot of ill-digested moral earnestness--they all aimed at one thing in their entrance ceremonies. They strove to impress the new-comer by all the resources they had at their command with the majestic wonder and glory and weight of the brotherhood to which he had been privileged to enter on the payment of the usual entrance fees.