On the ground a wide circle was traced by a small rod, tipped
apparently with sponge saturated with some combustible naphtha-like
fluid, so that a pale, lambent flame followed the course of the rod
as Margrave guided it, burning up the herbage over which it played,
and leaving a distinct ring, like that which, in our lovely native
fable talk, we call the "Fairy's ring," but yet more visible
because marked in phosphorescent light. On the ring thus formed
were placed twelve small lamps, fed with the fluid from the same
vessel, and lighted by the same rod. The light emitted by the
lamps was more vivid and brilliant than that which circled round
the ring.
Within the circumference, and immediately round the woodpile,
Margrave traced certain geometrical figures, in which--not without
a shudder, that I overcame at once by a strong effort of will in
murmuring to myself the name of "Lilian"--I recognized the
interlaced triangles which my own hand, in the spell enforced on a
sleepwalker, had described on the floor of the wizard's pavilion.
The figures were traced like the circle, in flame, and at the point
of each triangle (four in number) was placed a lamp, brilliant as
those on the ring. This task performed, the caldron, based on an
iron tripod, was placed on the woodpile. And then the woman,
before inactive and unheeding, slowly advanced, knelt by the pile
and lighted it. The dry wood crackled and the flame burst forth,
licking the rims of the caldron with tongues of fire.
Margrave flung into the caldron the particles we had collected,
poured over them first a liquid, colorless as water, from the
largest of the vessels drawn from his coffer, and then, more
sparingly, drops from small crystal phials, like the phials I had
seen in the hand of Philip Derval.
Having surmounted my first impulse of awe, I watched these
proceedings, curious yet disdainful, as one who watches the
mummeries of an enchanter on the stage.
"If," thought I, "these are but artful devices to inebriate and
fool my own imagination, my imagination is on its guard, and reason
shall not, this time, sleep at her post!"
"And now," said Margrave, "I consign to you the easy task by which
you are to merit your share of the elixir. It is my task to feed
and replenish the caldron; it is Ayesha's to feed the fire, which
must not for a moment relax in its measured and steady heat. Your
task is the lightest of all: it is but to renew from this vessel
the fluid that burns in the lamps, and on the ring. Observe, the
contents of the vessel must be thriftily husbanded; there is
enough, but not more than enough, to sustain the light in the
lamps, on the lines traced round the caldron, and on the farther
ring, for six hours. The compounds dissolved in this fluid are
scarce--only obtainable in the East, and even in the East months
might have passed before I could have increased my supply. I had
no months to waste. Replenish, then, the light only when it begins
to flicker or fade. Take heed, above all, that no part of the
outer ring--no, not an inch--and no lamp of the twelve, that are to
its zodiac like stars, fade for one moment in darkness."