I have neglected to say that my movements were accompanied by dismal groans from different parts of the grotto.
Finally, I was led up a steep plank to what appeared to me an incalculable height.

Here I stood breathless while the bylaws were read aloud.

A more extraordinary code of laws never came from the brain of man.

The penalties attached to the abject being who should reveal any of the secrets of the society were enough to make the blood run cold.

A second pistol-shot was heard, the something I stood on sunk with a crash beneath my feet and I fell two miles, as nearly as I could compute it.
At the same instant the handkerchief was whisked from my eyes, and I found myself standing in an empty hogshead surrounded by twelve masked figures fantastically dressed.