THE WIZARD'S SCHEME.
'We must, as you are aware, visit the Siege Perilous in the Hall of
Egypt, and risk ourselves in the chair of the Viewless Maiden, of Her
that is not to be seen of Man.'
'We know it,' said Leonora.
'It is,' continued the mage, 'your wish to accomplish the end for which
you set forth. This seems to you an easy matter enough; young hearts
are full of such illusions, and, believe me, I would willingly change
my years, which are lost in geological time, for one hand's breadth of
your daring. Know, then,' continued this strange creature, 'that the
time has now come when matters must be brought to an end between us. It
will be my business, and, I will add, my pleasure,' he continued with a
lofty air which sat drolly enough upon him in his yellow duds, 'to
conduct you to the Siege Perilous. From you, in return, I must exact an
unquestioning obedience; and I will add a measureless _confidence_. I
beg you to bear in mind that the slightest resistance to my will must
be followed by consequences of which you cannot estimate either the
reach or the extension.'
There was such a parrot-like pomp about the creature's tautology, and
such an old-world affectation of fine manners \in his constant
obeisances, that I could hold it no longer, but fairly laughed out in
his face.
I dreaded, it is true, lest some such fate as Ustani's might punish me
for my temerity, but for reasons which doubtless seemed sufficient to
himself the wizard merely looked at me through his veil, shook himself
a little in his swathings, and said in a matter-of-fact voice, 'Well,
well, perhaps we have had enough of such talk as this. Let's get ahead
with the business before us. That business is to reach the Siege
Perilous, or Magic Chair. Thither will I guide ye, and there ye shall
see what ye shall see. But first it is needful, as all sages have
declared, that ye shall show your confidence in me! I value not wealth.
Gold is mere dross--nay, I have the mines of King Solomon at my
disposal. But when the weary King Ecclesiast confided to me, in his
palace of ivory and cedar in Jerusalem, long ago, the secret of these
diamond treasures, he bade me reveal it to none who did not show their
confidence in me.
'Let _them_ entrust _you_,' said Solomon, 'with their paltry wealth,
ere _you_ place in _their_ hands opulence beyond the dreams of
avarice. Give me, then, merely as a sign of confidence, gold, much
gold, or,' he continued in a confidential and Semitic tone, 'its
equivalent in any safe securities, American railways preferred. Don't
bring bank-notes, my dear--risky things, risky things! Why, when I was
pals with Claude Duval--but 'tis gone, 'tis gone! Now, my dears, what
have you got? what have you got?'
'I have,' answered Leonora, in her clear sweet voice and girlish
trustfulness, 'as is my invariable custom, my _dot_, namely,
300,000_l._ worth of American railway shares, chiefly Chicago N.W. and
L. & N., in my pocket.'
'That's right, my dear, that's right,' said the Erie wizard; 'just hand
those to me, and then we can start at once.
'_And when_ (he went on in italics)
_o my Leonora
when that mystic change has been worked
which has been predestined
for countless ages and which shall come as
sure as fate,
then on another continent
kindred to thine yet strange, even in the land
of the railways that thy shares are in,
Thou and I,
the Magician and the Novice,
the Celebrated Wizard of the West
and his Accomplished Pupil
Mademoiselle Leonore
will make a tour that shall drag in the
dollars
by the hatful. NOW COME!'_