Other boys had passed through the ordeal and lived, why should not I?
A prolonged silence followed this preliminary examination and I was wondering what would come next, when a pistol fired off close by my car deafened me for a moment.

The unknown voice then directed me to take ten steps forward and stop at the word halt.

I took ten steps, and halted.
"Stricken mortal," said a second husky voice, more husky, if possible, than the first, "if you had advanced another inch, you would have disappeared down an abyss three thousand feet deep!" I naturally shrunk back at this friendly piece of information.

A prick from some two-pronged instrument, evidently a pitchfork, gently checked my retreat.

I was then conducted to the brink of several other precipices, and ordered to step over many dangerous chasms, where the result would have been instant death if I had committed the least mistake.