the three sitters, who involuntarily shrank away from it, disappeared
in the wall, behind them. A loud crack as if the branch of a tree had
broken, terminated the phenomena--the room again becoming pitch dark.
But the three sitters, although they knew there would be no further
manifestation that night, were too terrified to move. They remained
huddled together in the same spot till the morning was well advanced.




CHAPTER V

THE INITIATION


San Francisco possesses one great advantage--you can easily get out of
it. Leaving the pan-handle of the Park behind one, and following the
turn of the cars, one passes through a pretty valley, green and fair
as any garden, and dotted with small houses. An old cemetery lies to
one side of it; where unconventional inscriptions and queer epitaphs
can be traced on the half-buried stones, covered with a tangle of
vines and weeds. Still moving forward one reaches Olympus, and
climbing to its heights, one sees away below, in the far distance, the
Coast Range--like a rampart of strength; the blue waters of the bay,
sparkling and dancing in the sunlight--steamers flashing their path on
its bosom; and tiny white specks scudding in the breeze. Below is the
city, its houses, small, and closed in, like toy villages in Christmas
boxes; whilst the slopes around are green with fresh grass; and here
and there are thick clusters of eucalyptus and pines. The ocean is
partly hidden from view by a peak, which rises directly to the west,