“Suppose the other element has chances to win. Get ready at once and meet the situation. Go and speak to the chairman of the committee and early influence his mind in our favor. Offer any bribe you wish, for 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.