into the study. I took the knotted cord, the witch's ladder, and threw it contemptuously on the table. I
suppose there was something of bravado in the action; perhaps, if I had not felt so sure of McCann, I
would have pursued my original intention of burning it. I mixed myself a sedative, turned off the lights and
lay down to sleep. The sedative took quick effect.
I sank deep and deeper into a sea of sleep deeper…and deeper…
I awoke.
I looked around me…how had I come to this strange place? I was standing within a shallow circular pit,
grass lined. The rim of the pit came only to my knees. The pit was in the center of a circular, level
meadow, perhaps a quarter of a mile in diameter. This, too, was covered with grass; strange grass,
purple flowered. Around the grassy circle drooped unfamiliar trees…trees scaled with emeralds green