we have unlimited resources at our command."
"If only I could hear the answer," thought I.
Then the operator listened a long time, and I almost envied his
privilege, wishing that I might also hear the human voice from the
earth's surface.
Blackana conducted me to other parts of the building, and I saw the
fiendish program carried out at each point. Thousands of demons were
in league with the law-makers of the world!
"Oh! that I could cut these wires and restrict Satan's laws to these
underground dominions," I said with rising boldness,
"Silence, puny mortal! Know you not that others can hear you speak?
Would you here be crushed to death so far from the light of day?"
Superhuman strength moved me to answer thus: "Though all these hosts
should hear me, I fear nothing. I am invincible, and should you take
me to the deepest depths, amidst foul crawling imps, not one can harm
me. Neither can you, Blackana.
"Come on," he sneered, "cease your senseless sentences and follow me."
I saw that Blackana endeavored to conceal the counter-currents of his
heart, but nevertheless his agitation did not escape my notice.
Back to the elevators we went, and with a throng of evil spirits we
entered the central car and fell another thousand furlongs into the
depth of the earth.
We stopped at the second grand level into which I was ushered. I looked
out over what seemed to be a new world with more light and more
animation than was manifest on the first level.
Boisterous demonstrations were heard on every hand, all made more
hideous by the variety of evil spirits who added their din to the
general bedlam. "What furious world is this?" I shouted.
"This is Satan's political headquarters, and the place where his state
laws are made. We are here connected with every state or divisional
government in the world, and with every political movement that can
be influenced by these underground voices."
My indignation leaped over all bounds as the vileness of these
iniquitous schemes pressed upon me. I heard the bands of music from
|