Just before I got up this morning I saw a
striped figure bending over me!" "A striped figure?" "Yes! A cylindrical figure, about seven feet high, without any visible
limbs; but which gave me the impression it had limbs--of a sort--if it
cared to show them." "You were frightened?" "Naturally! So would you have been. It didn't speak, but in some
indefinable manner it conveyed to me the purport of its visit. To-night, at twelve o'clock, we are to go to the house of a Hindu,
called Karaver, in Berners Street, where we shall be initiated into
the second stage of our compact." "I hope to goodness we shan't see any spectral trees or striped
figures--I've had enough of them," Kelson said. "Then take care you don't do anything that might lead to the breaking
of the compact," Hamar retorted, "otherwise you'll see something far
worse." Shortly before midnight, Hamar, Curtis and Kelson, obeying the
injunctions Hamar had received, set off to Berners Street, where they
had little difficulty in finding Karaver's house. To their astonishment Karaver was expecting them. "How did you know we were coming," Curtis asked. "A gentleman called here early this morning and told me," Karaver
explained. "He said three friends of his particularly wished to be on
the Astral Plane, at twelve o'clock this evening, and that they would
each pay me a hundred guineas, if I would show them how to get there. I demurred. The secrets that have come down to me through generations
of my Cashmere ancestors, I tell only to a chosen few--those born
under the sign of Dejellum Brava. "The stranger showing me the sign--written plainer than I have ever
seen it--in the palm of his hand, I at once consented, and I had no
sooner done so than he vanished. I knew then that I had been speaking
to an Elemental--a spirit of my native mountains." "My nerves are not in a condition to stand much. Is there anything
very alarming in this astral business?" Kelson asked. "It depends on what you call alarming," the Indian said coldly. "I
shouldn't be alarmed." "Don't be a fool, Matt," Hamar interposed. "I never saw such a
frightened idiot in my life. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Think of what there is at stake." "Think of Lilian Rosenberg," Curtis whispered, "and be comforted." Karaver took them upstairs into a dimly lighted attic. In the centre
of the carpetless floor was a tripod, around which the three were told
to sit. Karaver then proceeded to pour into an iron vessel a mixture
composed of: 1/2 oz. of hemlock, 3/4 oz. of henbane, 2 oz. of opium, 1
oz. of mandrake roots, 2 oz. of poppy seeds, 1/2 oz. of assafoetida,
and 1/4 oz. of saffron. "Are these preparations absolutely necessary?" Kelson asked. "Absolutely," Karaver said. "English clairvoyants will, doubtless,
tell you they are not necessary. It is their custom, with a few
slipshod instructions, to lead you to suppose that getting on the
Astral Plane is mere child's play. It is not! It is extremely
difficult and can only be done, in the first place, through the
guidance of a skilled Oriental occultist." He then took a sword, and with it making the sign of a triangle in the
air, afterwards scratched a triangle on the floor, over which, in red
chalk, he superscribed a tree, an eye, and a hand. Then he heated the
mixture in the iron vessel over an oil stove. As soon as fumes arose
from it, he placed it on the tripod, crying, "Great Spirits of the
mountains, rivers and bowels of the earth, invest me with the heavy
seal, in order that I may conduct these three seekers after knowledge
to the realms of thy eternal phantoms." Immediately after this oration Karaver, dipping a twig of hazel in the
fumigation, waved it north, south, east and west crying "Give me
authority! Give me Ka-ta-la-derany;" and then kneeling down in front
of the brazier, in a droning voice repeated these words:

    "Green phantom figures of the air,
    A ready welcome see that you prepare. Black phantom figures from the earth,
    Of friendly salutations see there is no dearth. Red phantom figures of the furious fire,
    For kindly greeting change your usual ire. Grey, grizzly googies from the woods and dells,
    To gentle whisperings change your harrowing yells. Flagae, Devas, Mara Rupas,[19] hie to the Plane, the Astral Plane,
    And to these three poor fools, explain, explain
    The secrets that they wish to learn, to learn!" The mixture in the iron vessel was now giving off such dense fumes that
Hamar, Curtis and Kelson felt their senses slowly ebbing away. The
dark, lithe form of Karaver, his swarthy face and gleaming teeth
receded farther and farther into the background, whilst his voice
appeared to grow fainter and fainter. They were dimly conscious that
he sprayed them all over with some sweet-smelling scent,[20] and that
he whispered (in reality he spoke in his normal tones) these words:
"Darkona--droomer--doober--parlar--poohmer--perler. A--ta-rama--
skatarinek--ook--drooksi--noomig--viartikorsa. "[21] Then there came a
temporary blank, which was broken by a sudden burst of light. The
light, at first, was so blinding that they involuntarily closed their
eyes. It was quite different to any light they had been accustomed
to--it was far more vivid, and was in a perpetual state of vibration. When they had got sufficiently used to this dazzling effect to keep
their eyes open, they became aware that they were standing, apparently
on nothing, that the atmosphere was not composed of air such as they
knew, but of an indescribable something that rendered the act of
breathing wholly unnecessary, and that all around them was no ground,
no scenery, but only--space! They had barely finished remarking on these facts, when there suddenly
glided across their vision, forms--of every conceivable shape, _i.e._,
those resembling corpses of human beings and animals, with bloodless
faces, glassy eyes and stiff limbs--some apparently just dead and
others in an advanced state of decomposition, all possessed and
propelled by Impersonating Elementals; phantoms of actual earthbound
people--misers, murderers, etc., several of whom approached the trio
and tried to peer into their faces. "For heaven's sake keep off!" Kelson shrieked, as the vibrating form
of an epileptic imbecile, with protruding blue eyes and pimply cheeks,
came up to him, and thrust its face into his. "This is a bit thick," Hamar said, vainly attempting to elude the
phantom of a short, stout woman with a big head and purple face, who,
putting out a large black, swollen tongue, leered at him. "Curse you! d--n you!" Curtis screamed, throwing out his hands in a
vain endeavour to beat off the phantoms of two idiot boys, who were
trying to bite him with their loose, dribbling mouths. "A little more
of this, and I shall go mad!" Seeing a tall, grey phantom with a man's body and wolf's head bounding
up to them, Kelson would have run away, had not Hamar, whose presence
of mind never quite deserted him, gripped him by the arm.