Late Tuesday night Robert was picked up at a street corner which had
been designated, by an automobile filled with white-robed and hooded
figures. The Tribesman beside him placed his finger on his lips and the
journey was made in silence. It was a fantastic ride, through the dimly
lighted streets, then through the shadowy suburbs, into the country.
There was a full moon and under it the earth looked a grotesque thing
of shadows--a phantasy in black and white.
As they left the city, Robert noticed other cars, with similar loads of
hooded figures, ahead and behind them, all moving silently and without
lights. Within a half hour they had reached a large field, the fences
guarding which had been pulled down, and in the center of which a
circle of cars was being parked under the silent direction of Tribesmen.
Robert and the members of his party dismounted and crossed the field to
a thickly-wooded glade, at the edge of which a narrow path was faintly
visible in the moonlight. Other candidates joined him until there were
perhaps one hundred. These were formed into a long column by means of
whispers and gestures. It was exactly midnight by Robert’s wrist watch
when suddenly a tall figure in white, bearing aloft a fiery cross,
appeared. He marched to the head of the column, the light of the rood
casting a ruddy reflection on the upturned faces of the initiates and
on the figures in white and causing the shadows to dance back and forth
grotesquely. As the bearer of the fiery cross moved slowly forward, the
neophytes in groups of ten, each conducted by a Tribesman, followed
along the path in the grove, which now gleamed and faded before their
footsteps.
It was an awe-inspiring sight. Hamilton was carried back to his
childhood, to his first fear of shadows and spectres. Weird ghost
stories flickered through his mind. He remembered strange rites of
primitive peoples--the initiation of headhunters into their bloody
mysteries, of the fearful Thugs, of the secret societies of the Bantus.
The shadows clutched about him and the blaze of light flamed up and
down ahead.
He had proceeded perhaps fifty feet, when he was suddenly aware of a
hooded figure standing motionless beside the path, a grim sentinel,
peering at him through the slits in his mask. Fifty feet farther, at
a bend in the path, stood another sentinel. They had passed six of
these silent figures in white, when the winding column was brought
to a sudden halt. The bearer of the cross was being questioned by a
guardian. His voice rang through the grove:
“What if any of your party should prove a traitor?”
The reply came in a deep, solemn voice to the hushed initiates:
“He would be immediately banished in disgrace from the Fourth Dimension
without fear or favor, conscience would tenaciously torment him,
remorse repeatedly revile him, and direful things would befall him.”
Again the questioner:
“Does he know this?”
And again the rejoinder:
“All this he knows. He has heard and he must heed.”
A countersign was given, the guard stepped back, and the column moved
forward. Hamilton found himself in a clearing, from the center of which
rose a rude altar and about which hundreds of hooded Tribesmen stood
massed. The bearer of the fiery cross circled the clearing. The groups
of neophytes followed.
The white forms, the flickering light, all had confused Hamilton and
he now perceived that the Tribesmen were standing in a double rank,
through which he was marching. Four times the group stopped before a
Tribesman, who sat exalted on a high chair or rock--exactly what, it
was too dark to see--and harangued them. There were questions about
obedience, about secrecy, about fidelity, about tribal fealty. Robert
was too confused to hear all the questions or to understand those he
heard.
The groups of neophytes had once more become a line. The bearer of the
fiery rood stalked behind the altar and thrust the flaming emblem in
the ground. It was the sole light. A masked figure stepped forward and
held out his hand:
“Always remember that to keep the oath means to you, honor, happiness
and life; but to violate it means disgrace, dishonor and _death_.” It
was a voice of frenzy. The flames and shadows danced weirdly. The moon
gleamed through the black trees. The silent Tribesmen peered through
the slits in their hoods.
“You will place your left hand over your heart and raise your right
hand to heaven.”
Robert obeyed and, in chorus with the other initiates, repeated the
words of the oath:
“I, in the presence of God and man, most solemnly pledge, promise and
swear”--and so forth to the end. It was an oath of obedience to the
sublime authority of the Tribe and to the head of the Tribe, Joseph
Andrew Lister.
Then the oath of secrecy, in which the candidates swore that they would
rather die than divulge any of the secrets.
Next an oath to work for the good of the Tribe in spite of personal or
other conflicting motives.
Last of all an oath of fealty to the Tribe, of protection of members.
“I swear that I will keep secure to myself a secret of a Tribesman when
same is committed to me in the sacred bond of Tribal fealty--the crime
of violating THIS solemn oath, treason against the United States of
America, rape and malicious murder alone excepted.” Malicious murder?
What could that mean? Why the qualification of murder? For a fleeting
moment Robert was puzzled. But he went on mechanically with the oath.
“I most solemnly assert and affirm that to the government of the
United States of America and any state thereof of which I may become a
resident I sacredly swear an unqualified allegiance above any other
and every kind of government in the whole world. I here and now pledge
my life, my property, my vote and my sacred honor to uphold its flag,
its Constitution and its constitutional laws and will protect, defend
and enforce same unto death.
“I swear that I will most zealously and valiantly shield and preserve
by any and all justifiable means and methods (justifiable? Again a
question came into Robert’s mind. But he dismissed it.) the sacred
constitutional rights and privileges of free public schools, free
speech, free press, separation of church and state, liberty, white
supremacy, just laws and the pursuit of happiness against any
encroachment of any nature by any person, persons, political party or
parties, religious sect or people, native, naturalized or foreign, of
any race, color, creed, lineage or tongue whatsoever.”
The head of the Tribe, himself, who had previously impressed on the
candidates the sacredness of the oath now took from the altar a water
bottle. Robert noticed, for the first time, that, beside the bottle,
the altar held also an American flag, a Bible and a dagger.
“With this transparent, life-giving, powerful, God-given fluid,” he
began, his voice rising and falling in even cadences, “more precious
and far more significant than all the sacred oils of the ancients, I
set you apart from the men of your daily association to the great and
honorable task you have voluntarily allotted yourselves as citizens of
the Fourth Dimension, Hunters of the Trick Track Tribe. You will kneel
upon your right knee.”
Robert felt as though he were in the midst of some weird nightmare.
He had had that impression all evening. Now it seemed deepened--the
figures in white, the darkness, the eerie moon, the gleaming cross,
the shadows. But what was happening now, or about to happen, seemed
too utterly unreal. It was like one of those points in a dream where
the dreamer cries out “I am only dreaming,” and strives desperately
to awake. It could not be possible! Still the Tribal Head held the
water bottle. Was he about to perform a baptismal rite? Robert had
no particularly delicate religious scruples. Still, the burlesquing
of the sacrament of baptism shocked his sensibilities. He would have
been equally shocked if someone had trampled on the American flag--if
someone had cruelly trampled on the flag of any other nation. It was
fanatical. Robert was conscious of a quartette, somewhere far away,
singing a hymn in low, yet distinct tones. Something about “Home,
country and tribe.” He noticed that he was kneeling with the hundred
other candidates.
The voice of the Tribal Head rose:
“I dedicate you in body, in mind, in spirit and in life to the holy
service of our country and our tribe, our home, each other and
humanity.”
He advanced and poured a few drops of water on each candidate’s neck.
“In body,” Hamilton heard him say as a drop fell on his back; “in
mind,” a few drops fell on his head; “in spirit,” the officer sprinkled
a few drops on his own hand and tossed them upward; “in life.” He moved
his hand in a circle above the candidates’ heads. The baptism was
ended. Officers and Tribesmen fell on their knees and prayed.
The fiery cross flickered above them. The black shadows danced faster.
A cloud obscured the moon. Robert was a Tribesman.