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 sleep-walker, 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 wood-pile. 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, colourless 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 heed 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."
I took the crystal vessel from his hand.
"The vessel is small," said I, "and what is yet left of its contents is
but scanty; whether its drops suffice to replenish the lights I cannot
guess,--I can but obey your instructions. But, more important by far than
the light to the lamps and the circle, which in Asia or Africa might scare
away the wild beasts unknown to this land--more important than light to a
lamp, is the strength to your frame, weak magician! What will support you
through six weary hours of night-watch?"
"Hope," answered Margrave, with a ray of his old dazzling style. "Hope!
I shall live,--I shall live through the centuries!"